Mistake
by Asahi Minako
Summary: It had been a mistake, even though they were reluctant to admit it, Trisha Elric's death had been a mistake, and five years later, they're planning to send her back. How they'll go about doing that, though, is a whole other problem. -RoyEd- Under revision
1. Chapter I

**April 4, 2008:**** Hello there, it is I, Asahi Minako. More recently (and commonly) referred to as "the Minako-baka". I started this story quite a while ago, as you can tell by the "published" date. And recently reread it, and found some absolutely horrific mistakes (mostly plot holes), and things that needed to be fixed in general. (Especially the immature author's notes…) So, I bring you the new and improved ****Mistake****.**

**Previous (revised) author's note:**

**Okay, I'm well aware that I have not finished The Price Paid yet, but I was reading a challenge issued by (the ever fabulous) Neo Diji and an idea hit me. The challenge was 'What if Trisha discovered about Roy and Ed's relationship' (assuming they have one) and, as I before stated: an idea was born. So, this will be a multi chapter monstrosity with a magical time skip (or two… or three) somewhere in it, and there will be a lot of things I'll be inventing/touching on/writing about. So… fear how long this thing will be… And there may be a lot of skips between characters, so I apologize to anyone who gets super confused (but not to the ones who just get 'confused' those people don't matter :D).**

**Warnings:**** The inevitable Shounen-ai/boys love/malexmale romance; The inevitable swearing/cursing (this is Edward we're talking about here.); And also! This story would be impossible to tell without Original Characters. (I know, I know, the dreaded OCs) I'll try my hardest to keep the focus off of them. After all, this story is about Trisha and Edward. However, it's inevitable, I apologize beforehand.**

**Disclaimer:**** Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa/Square Enix/BONES, and all of the other people involved. I'm not profiting from this at all, just having a little fun, expanding on the characters personalities a bit (well, **_**a**_** character), and writing something that could never, and would never happen in the FMA/HAGAREN universe. Carry on.**

**I would also like to ask that you please don't call my Original Characters Mary Sues just because they're original characters. If you want to insult them, do it constructively and give me a legitimate reason. I don't want to hear "Kameko is a Mary Sue, and I hate her!" or something like that, I want to hear, "Kameko is a Mary Sue because she -insert reason here-" Thank you.**

**And without further ado (thank God) **

**To Set the Stage: The time is directly before the death of Trisha Elric. (Completely unnecessary information, though, because you brilliant readers could figure that out on your own.)**

* * *

**Chapter I**

Trisha was feeling weak, very weak; she was clinging to life with all she had. The brunette woman had already told her dear sons about the money their father had left them, and now, all she wanted was one last thing. "Edward, could you transmute your mother one last wreath of flowers? Your father used to…" She paused, and inhaled heavily. She had a feeling nobody else could see the figure standing at the foot of the bed. It was a terrifying thing, the figure was translucent, and wore a white version of a grim reaper's cloak. They didn't hold a scythe, though, but a tall silver rod with a multi pointed star on the top. She continued anyway, keeping her eyes on the figure "…make them for me, all the time, and-" She thought she saw a sad smile on the figure's face, but she didn't have time to ponder it, for the figure had already touched the star on top of the rod to her forehead. In the next moment, everything went white. She felt weightless, like she was floating. She was free of pain, and almost nothing seemed to matter. She could feel a cool refreshing breeze on her skin, although she had a feeling there was nowhere the breeze could have come from. She closed her eyes to relish the calming feeling, but no sooner than she had closed them she felt ground beneath her feet. She opened her eyes and gasped.

Before her was a massive golden gate. The walkway she stood upon seemed to be made of a very expensive white marble. She marveled at the very magnificence of the gate for a moment, before her green eyes caught sight of someone through the bars. The person waved their hand, and the gates slowly opened. There was a girl whose height suggested that she was about 12. She had wavy platinum blonde hair, large doe brown eyes, and wore a long white dress with gold trim on the hem and the bottom of the sleeves, and a thin gold sash around her middle. "Follow me" she said quietly, and began walking, Trisha close behind.

Trisha stared in awe at the sight behind the gate. The walkway was indeed white marble, and reflected the sun in a magnificent way. The path was lined with gold and white rosebushes, and beyond that was a well-kept grassy courtyard with many flowers growing in flowerbeds. On either side of the courtyard, there was a large elaborate marble fountain. She noticed many other woman and girls about the courtyard tending flowers and trimming bushes, and many people she didn't know enjoying the scenery. One person, though, caught her eye- a woman with long black hair, and eyes to match, with pale skin that contrasted greatly. Trisha recognized the woman to be Yura, the oldest daughter of Risembool's mayor. The brunette woman remembered hearing that Yura was quite sickly and had never recovered. She recalled attending the young woman's funeral over a year ago. Now, though, Yura appeared to be perfectly healthy. She wore a dress similar to the one the girl now leading her was, and when she caught sight of Trisha she gave a half smirk, half sneer. Trisha blinked; she had never known Yura to be a mean woman. The blonde girl who had been leading her looked over her shoulder, "Excuse me, ma'am" she called out.

Trisha blinked; she hadn't realized she had stopped walking until she looked ahead of her on the path to see the girl standing almost five feet ahead of her. "I'm sorry" Trisha apologized as she smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. She had been staring, how rude of her.

The blonde shook her head, "it's fine," she replied, a small smile on her face. Trisha didn't notice the evil glare Yura gave her before she continued following the small girl, who was leading her toward a very large building, which seemed to be made of the same marble as the walkway.

When they approached the large golden double doors at the front of the building, the girl pushed them open and looked at Trisha. "If you're ready to cross over, wait for someone to help you, and if you're not, when they ask, tell them you're not ready…" she said.

"Cross over?" Trisha asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

The woman said nothing but ushered Trisha inside, then walked down a hallway. "Wait there" she said over her shoulder, then disappeared inside a room.

Trisha blinked and sat down timidly in a chair that was a part of what appeared to be a lavishly decorated lobby with Victorian style furniture in red and gold. There was a large chandelier overhead with dangling crystals. The brunette woman was in awe, she had never seen anything so elegant in her entire life, not even during the times she had visited Central City. She looked down at the red and gold carpet, and admired the design for a while before looking back up. A large mirror on one wall caught her eye. It startled her at first, however, because instead of seeing herself and the rest of the room in it, as a mirror should behave, she saw the Risembool graveyard. She gave it an odd look and walked over staring intently at the scene to appeared to be unfolding. Inside the mirror she saw a group of people who seemed to burying a coffin. She could see Edward and Alphonse crying, and many of the other people from Risembool. That was it then. She was dead. This must be Heaven, but then what did that tall woman mean by "crossing over"?

"Are you ready to cross over yet, ma'am?" a female voice bearing an odd accent she had never heard before asked.

Trisha tore her gaze from the mirror and focused on the girl behind her who had spoken. Her height suggested that she was only a child; however other features told her that she was much older. She had long golden blonde hair that brushed the back of her calves, and large golden eyes that reminded her of Edward's. She wore a dress similar to the one the other blonde girl and Yura were wearing. Trisha gave the girl an odd look, "What do you mean cross over?" she asked, though unfortunately, she had an idea of what it meant already.

The golden-eyed woman blinked, "They didn't tell you when you got here?" she asked. Trisha shook her head, and the woman sighed exasperatedly, "Cross over from the land of the living to the land of the dead…. Heaven…." She tried to explain.

"I wasn't ready to die." Trisha replied, quietly and almost disbelievingly.

"Awright then, Mrs.………" she glanced at the clipboard she held in her hand, "Elric." She said, "Your room is ready."

"You can call me Trisha," the brunette said, preferring hearing her first name to something so formal. She had always been a friendly woman, and never took well to formalities.

The blonde woman nodded firmly, and then turned on her heels motioning with her head for Trisha to follow her.

"I didn't catch your name…" Trisha said as the woman led her down the white hallways of the large building. She would have expected her voice to echo as if they were in the halls of a hospital or the sort, but it didn't. She could, however, hear the faint clicking of the short woman's heels on the floor.

The woman sighed in an amused way, "I'm Kameko." The woman replied, looking over her shoulder, and smirking, "It means _child of the tortoise_ but it can be a symbol of long life…"

Trisha nodded in acknowledgement.

"And here we are!" the woman said, stopping in front of a solid gold door. Trisha looked at it in shock. "Don't be so surprised." The woman said in her odd accent. She placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, "this is the crossroads between the world of the living, and the afterlife." She spread her arms apart to gesture to the large hallway, "it's even more impressive over there." At Trisha's confused look, she clarified, "The afterlife." Trisha nodded, in a confused way. Kameko looked over her clipboard quickly "Um…. Jordan will be here to fill you in on the details soon." She opened the door for Trisha, "Now, I must get going," she said, flipping to the next page. "Lot's of things to do…" she waved and turned on her heels, walking back down the hallway.

Trisha turned toward the doorway, and walked inside. She stared in awe at the room. It was as lavishly decorated as the lobby she had been in earlier. On one half of the room was a queen-sized bed with a gold painted bed frame, and red and gold bedding. The other half had a red Victorian style couch with gold woodwork, a matching red armchair, and loveseat, all positioned around a cherry wood coffee table. She noticed, at the other side of the room, a large window that reached from the floor to the ceiling and was decorated with red velvet curtains. She walked over to the window and looked outside. She surveyed the well-kept courtyard below with the large fountains. She saw a few women running around dressed in similar outfits to the one Kameko and the other two were wearing, and quite a few people who looked normal, as far as she could tell. And the grass outside was so green that it seemed unnatural.

"Yo!" a rather deep, but distinctly feminine voice greeted from behind her. Trisha whirled around to see what she thought, at first was a boy, lounging on the sofa, however, upon further inspection; she decided the person was female. She had very short brown hair that reminded her a bit of Alphonse's, olive green eyes that sparkled with amusement, and she was rather…. Busty. She didn't wear the long dress Kameko and the others wore, but instead, she wore a pair of tight fitting white pants that flared out at the bottom, bearing the same gold trim, and a tight white shirt that exposed a fair amount of her midriff. She would have scolded the woman for such an indecency, but she assumed that if this was the crossroads, the woman was probably older than she was. The new brunette grinned widely, "I'm Jordan." She said. Trisha was about to say something, but Jordan interrupted her. "Trisha Marie Elric, died at age 30 from a rather nasty illness, housewife married to Hohenheim Elric, two sons Edward age 9 and Alphonse age 8." She stated, "And quite beautiful if I say so myself." She added at the end.(1)

Trisha stared in surprised, "How did you…?" She couldn't even finish her sentence.

"How did I know?" Jordan asked, "This is the crossroads between the world of the living and the afterlife. We keep files on you." Before Trisha could get a word in, the other brunette went on, "I'm here to fill you in on what's goin' on here, since you've chosen not to cross over just yet." Trisha nodded as a signal for her to continue. "Have a seat," Jordan said, gesturing to the chair across from her, which Trisha took. Jordan sat up, interlacing her fingers together, "So… Where to begin?" she asked herself then paused for a while, "Okay. You're dead." She said bluntly.

Trisha nodded absently. She already figured that part out, but it was still taking a while to sink in. "I should have known when I saw Yura here," she replied, almost dazedly.

Jordan made a disgusted look, "don't much like that woman…" she muttered, then continued, "Anyway you're at the crossroads between the world of the living and the afterlife, Heaven, or Hell… depending on how you lived… Kameko tells me that you're not ready to cross over. Is this because you're in denial or something?"

"I don't know." Trisha replied, "I wasn't ready to die and leave my sons alone and…" she trailed off. The thought of her sons left alone without their mother hurt her.

Jordan looked at her sadly, "I'm sorry…" she said quietly, and then perked up a little, "Anyway, you can stay here for as long as you like, until you're ready to cross over."

Trisha nodded, but then a question hit her, "can I see them?"

"Who? Your sons?" she asked, at Trisha's nod, she quickly replied, "I'm sorry, I can't let you, it's not allowed. You understand I hope."

Trisha nodded silently, though she couldn't help but wonder what she would do here without her sons to take care of, or the house or anything like that. Then she started to wonder, if this was the crossroads between life and death, and Heaven and Hell, couldn't somebody condemned to Hell just stay here for eternity.

"No." Jordan replied, before Trisha even asked.

Trisha looked at the brunette in mild surprise, "Yes, I can read your mind." Jordan said, "But only when I feel like it…. Anyways, only people who can go to Heaven are permitted to stay here until they're ready to cross over. Souls condemned to Hell are sent straight there…. After we make the proper arrangements…" She then looked up, "anything else you wanna know?"

Trisha nodded, realizing she had one more question. "I wanted to know what that mirror I saw in the lobby was, and why I saw Risembool in it."

Jordan smiled, "That's the 'Window to the Living' as we call it… It provides a window from here to the world of the living that you came from. It only works at the time of your funeral or a little after. And only you can see the scene you saw. If another person who died at the same time as you looked in the mirror at the same time you did, they would see their funeral and you would see yours."

"What do you mean 'world of the living that I came from'? You make it sound like there's more than one world…"

Jordan smiled, "That's because there are, Mrs. Elric! There are thousands of different worlds! And you are from one of many. But honestly that's not important now because I have to go. If you have any other questions, pick up the phone over there and dial zero once, 'kay?" and then she was gone… She didn't use the door or anything, and she didn't fade away, she was just…………………….. Gone…… how odd… Trisha concluded that staying here would most certainly be…. interesting.

* * *

**Last revised:**** April 4, 2008**

**Comments:**

**(1) Do I know if Trisha's middle name is Marie? Nope. Not a clue. It sounded nice, though, didn't it?**

**Reviews are appreciated, if you have anything to say. Constructive criticism is great. It's also lovely just to hear someone say something like "hey, I like this story, write more" But I won't demand reviews, because if I did then I'd be a huge hypocrite. But it's nice to know who's reading and how they like it, of course you all understand. :)**

**-The Minako-baka**


	2. Chapter II

**April 4, 2008: And again, hello there. I bring you another revised chapter. This one centered a lot on Emiko the first time around, and after rereading it I tried my hardest to fix that, but it's just not possible, so you're going to have to deal with it. I'm sorry.**

**Thanks: Kara (Neo Diji), and Sora Pwns Your Sox**

**Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa/Square Enix/BONES, and all of the other people involved. I'm not profiting from this at all, just having a little fun, expanding on the characters personalities a bit and writing something that could never, and would never happen in the FMA/HAGAREN universe. Carry on.**

**I would also like to ask that you please don't call my Original Characters Mary Sues just because they're original characters. If you want to insult them, do it constructively and give me a legitimate reason. I don't want to hear "Kameko is a Mary Sue, and I hate her!" or something like that, I want to hear, "Kameko is a Mary Sue because she -insert reason here-" Thank you.**

* * *

**Chapter II**

After living there for a year, Trisha was becoming used to the Crossroads as she had heard some of the workers refer to it as. Jordan and Kameko talked to her often, and she discovered that there were many things here that she could do that she wasn't able to do when she was alive, because of her illness. She had been impressed by the large mass of water in back of the building that Jordan had told her was a "Swimming Pool". Back in Risembool when they wanted to swim, they would swim in the river, or a nearby lake, but Jordan had explained that a swimming pool was a man made body of water that was kept clean just for people to swim in. At first she had thought the idea odd, but over time, she found herself visiting the pool more often. Swimming soon became one of Trisha's favorite pastimes.

She hadn't noticed it on the first day she was at the Crossroads, but after a while she noticed that each worker wore a different colored armband. Jordan had explained that the bands identified rank like in the military. A worker with a white armband was fairly new, and hadn't worked there for very long -the equivalent of a private, if you will. And a worker with a gold armband like herself, Kameko, and a person she called Emiko were very high in the chain; like the rank of a general. They were right under the 'Ruler' whom appeared to be like the Fuehrer. Trisha wasn't sure why they had called the fuehrer here the 'Ruler' but she didn't dwell too much on it.

One day, a worker with shoulder length dishwater blonde hair, and amethyst colored eyes showed up in her room. She wore a golden armband, Trisha noted, which probably meant she was the Emiko, Jordan had mentioned. She was smiling rather kindly, but the air around her seemed to radiate annoyance, though Trisha couldn't figure out what there was to be annoyed about.

"Hello, Mrs. Elric." She greeted rather curtly.

"Um… hello." Trisha replied, feeling rather uncomfortable around this woman.

The blonde woman sighed in what seemed to be annoyance, and turned around to face the door, "Yura I swear if you don't stop eavesdropping, I'll be sure to assign you to pool cleaning." She threatened.

Trisha was shocked to hear Yura get in trouble like this, she had always been under the impression that she was a nice girl. Yura walked into the doorway and glared at the two in the room, before turning on her heels and walking away.

"I'm sorry." Emiko apologized, though she didn't seem any less harsh, "Anyway, my name is Emiko, and I'm here to ask if you are ready to cross over yet. This is the final time you'll be asked."

"My my, quite harsh, aren't you, Emiko?" Jordan asked from the doorway.

Emiko turned and looked at the much taller woman, "Jordan." She greeted as tersely as before. When she caught sight of Kameko she greeted the shorter woman in the same way, "Kameko."

Kameko wrinkled her nose, "You're certainly in a good mood today, Emiko." She muttered. Emiko rolled her eyes in response.

Jordan smiled uneasily, "Emiko, there's something I need to talk to you about." She said, motioning for the dishwater blonde to follow her outside the room. Emiko nodded and walked out into the hallway, as Kameko took her place inside the room.

"Hello, Trisha." Kameko greeted, smiling brightly. She then walked over to a vase on a nearby end table and began to rearrange the flowers it was holding.

"Hello." Trisha replied, giving the blonde an odd look. Kameko was a rather business like person, and Trisha didn't know her to smile like that often, unless she was really happy… or something really bad was happening… If Kameko was happy, she would have said something by now, meaning… there was something really bad going on, and they were trying to hide it from her. "Kameko, what's going on?" she asked, warily.

The golden blonde stopped arranging abruptly, and turned to face Trisha, still smiling. "What are you talking about, Trisha? Nothing's going on!" she said, grinning. Trisha gave her a motherly frown, and Kameko's smile faded. "That is… um…" she looked away, "I can't tell you."

Trisha nodded, though she was a little worried about Kameko's behavior. She seemed deeply troubled, and Trisha's motherly nature caused her to worry about the girl, even though she knew that girl was probably older than her grandmother.

Kameko grinned again, "It's probably nothing to worry about." Kameko said, probably more to reassure herself than the other woman in the room. Trisha only nodded.

oOo

Jordan shut the door behind the two, a somber look on her face. Emiko immediately realized there was something wrong. Jordan never looked serious, or somber. She really never portrayed any emotion aside from a sort of mocking cheerfulness. This immediately put the shorter woman on edge. "Emiko, we have a problem," Jordan spoke, looking at the other woman pointedly.

Emiko rolled her eyes, to mask her concern, "I figured that much out." She said, placing her hands on her hips, "I wanna know what the problem is."

Jordan didn't give her characteristic smirk, as she usually would when dealing with Emiko's attitude, "Do you know why Shii told you to tell Trisha this was the last time she'd be asked if she wanted to cross over, and why you were to try so hard to convince her to cross?"

Emiko frowned. She wasn't one for dancing around subjects. She wished everyone could just be as blunt and straightforward as she was. "Where are you going with this?" she asked harshly.

Jordan only continued, ignoring the question, "I discovered this not long ago, but-" she was interrupted by the blonde's annoyed voice.

"What are you trying to say?" Emiko demanded, looking more annoyed than she had before.

Jordan sighed in exasperation, "I was getting to that! If you'd just listen instead of running your mouth!" she yelled.

The dishwater blonde scowled and looked to the floor, "I'm sorry…" she muttered, "But if you would just tell me what I need to know, and skip all of the details," she tried to justify.

"Transmutation."

Emiko looked up, "What?"

Jordan sighed, and looked out the window on the other side of the hallway crossly. "That's why you were supposed to convince her to leave," she elaborated, looking at the other woman again, and gesturing hopelessly with her hand. "Her sons are preparing a human transmutation as we speak."

"Jordan, you can't be serious," Emiko tried to reason, an edge of laughter in her voice, "We haven't seen one of those in over a hundred years."

"I'm serious, Emiko, why would I joke about something like this?" Jordan asked angrily. This was something even she wouldn't joke about.

Emiko blinked as the information sunk in. "Jordan, they're just children!" she exclaimed in alarm, "Can't we do anything to help them?"

Jordan looked out the window again. "That's not up to me..." she spoke solemnly, knowing full well how Emiko felt about this.

Emiko's eyes widened before they narrowed in anger. "Jordan! Try something! They're just children!" she snapped. That was the thing about Emiko. She feigned irritation for the world, but only Jordan knew how much her heart bled.

Jordan said nothing, but continued to look out the window.

"Jordan!" Emiko exclaimed, trying to get the other woman to at least say _something_.

"There's nothing I can do." Jordan said tonelessly, turning on her heels.

"Jordan! Wait! Jordan!" the shorter woman called after her co-worker's retreating form. "They'll die…" she said quietly to herself, "Just don't let them die." She turned toward the door, and fixed her irritated mask back into place. Right before she pushed open the door, an alarm sounded. Emiko cursed and ran into the room, "Kameko, stay there!" she commanded, before rushing down the hall in the same direction Jordan had gone. "Jordan!" she called out trying to find the tall brunette woman, "Jordan!"

oOo

Yura sat in one of the chairs in the lobby watching all the workers rushing around in a panic. According to another worker, it had been about a hundred years since someone from the living attempted a human transmutation on a person who hadn't crossed over yet. She smirked. The more she stayed here, the more amusing things got.

oOo

Emiko rushed through the lobby. She failed to notice Yura simply lounging in a chair, and quickly continued on to the conference room she was looking for. This was insane. It had been over a hundred years since a person tried to perform human transmutation on someone who hadn't crossed over yet. They couldn't let the person come back, that was against the rules. That was why she had gotten orders to convince Trisha to cross over, so they didn't have to deal with this. If Trisha had crossed over, the transmutation wouldn't have reached Heaven, but here, if they weren't careful, the soul would be pulled back to the world of the living, and they couldn't have that. But Emiko wouldn't let those boys die, either. Even if it killed her, she would make sure they both made it back alive.

With those thoughts in mind, she picked up her speed, nearly knocking over some lower ranked workers in the process.

She finally stopped when she nearly ran into the large golden double doors. They bore an elaborate design of large fantasy-like flowers lining the landscape, and flying above it, covering most of the right hand door, and some of the left was a large phoenix with a long flowing tail. Emiko, however, took no time to admire the door, as she had seen it almost every day for almost a hundred years. Instead, she burst through the doors urgently. The room she had entered was rather large, made of the same marble as the rest of the building. In the center of the room was a large wooden table stretching the length of the room. Seated at the far head of the table was a figure cloaked in shadow, and sitting to her right was Jordan, looking rather stressed with her head buried in her hands. Emiko looked directly at a figure cloaked in shadows, "Shii," she spoke as calmly as she could, "Please let me help them."

The figure looked up in surprise, and though their face was hidden, Emiko could tell there was a rather motherly smile on it. Jordan, however, was looking at her in shock, "What do you mean 'help them'?" She asked.

Emiko shrugged, "Let me convince Him to show them only a portion of True Knowledge," She pleaded, "I don't want them to go through what all of that."

Jordan only looked at her, "What. The. Hell?" she asked.

"Please?" she asked again.

Jordan stood up from her seat and made her way over to the shorter dishwater blonde, "What the hell do you mean? What is wrong with you?!" She demanded, "You could get yourself killed, or even lost forever in that dimension!" she said, referring to the world beyond the gate. "You can't come back or be reincarnated if you get killed, Emiko! If you die, you'll be lost forever! No afterlife!" she shouted. Emiko, however, was looking at the shadowed figure, for a signal. "Emiko! Are you listening to me?!" Jordan demanded.

The figure nodded, and Emiko nodded in return, quickly turned on her heels, and ran toward the lobby again.

"Emiko!" Jordan called after her, even though she knew the shorter woman wasn't listening. She turned back to the figure, "Why did you let her go?" she asked the figure.

The figure replied in a voice both melodically beautiful, but also terrifying, "She's right to go. Those boys have a lot more to go through in life. If Emiko can save one of them, they'll both come out okay."

Jordan only ground her teeth, and slammed a fist on the table, "Stupid woman." She muttered.

The figure only chuckled.

* * *

**Revised: April 4, 2008**

**Again, I apologize for centering on my OCs so much. The rest of the story won't be like that, I promise. This was the only chapter I had to center on them in. I actually feel kind of bad, but I feel that you need to know what's going on here rather than what Trisha's doing now. (She's pretty much twiddling her thumbs and trying to get information out of Kameko… it's not working well.) Again, sorry, and I hope this hasn't made you completely hate the story. Please stick with me?**

**And again, reviews are appreciated, if you have anything to say. Constructive criticism is great. It's also lovely just to hear someone say something like "hey, I like this story, write more" But I won't demand reviews, because if I did then I'd be a huge hypocrite. But it's nice to know who's reading and how they like it, of course you all understand. :)**

**- the Minako-baka **


	3. Chapter III

**April 4, 2008: And again, allow me to apologize for the domination of original characters in that last chapter. Originally it hadn't been planned, but… Oh whatever, I explained myself last time.**

**And another warning. This is where I start to take over Trisha's personality. Because she doesn't really develop in either the anime or the manga, so this is the way I see Trisha, alright? :)**

**Thanks: Neo Diji, Sora Pwns Your Sox, and Invader-Nehima**

**Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa/Square Enix/BONES, and all of the other people involved. I'm not profiting from this at all, just having a little fun, expanding on the characters personalities a bit and writing something that could never, and would never happen in the FMA/HAGAREN universe. Carry on.**

**I would also like to ask that you please don't call my Original Characters Mary Sues just because they're original characters. If you want to insult them, do it constructively and give me a legitimate reason. I don't want to hear "Kameko is a Mary Sue, and I hate her!" or something like that, I want to hear, "Kameko is a Mary Sue because she -insert reason here-" Thank you.**

* * *

**Chapter III**

Emiko sped down the hallway into the lobby. She knew what she was about to do was dangerous, but she couldn't stand the thought of children being held forever behind the Gate either. She couldn't say just why, but she held a soft spot for these children, probably because Jordan and Kameko spent so much time with their mother. As she reached the end of the hallway she noticed a person standing in her path. She stopped immediately, and stared wide-eyed at the person before her.

Standing in front of her, arms crossed, and a frown on her face, was the one and only Trisha Elric.

"T-Trisha, ma'am" Emiko stuttered, she was in trouble now. This was what they were trying to prevent

Trisha frowned at the pale-haired immortal standing before her, looking rather like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Earlier she had asked Kameko what had been going on, but she only began spouting some sort of nonsense about a rainstorm. The younger woman's sketchy behavior had bothered the brunette to no end, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. She pursed her lips and continued to frown at the blonde before she finally decided to speak, "What are you three hiding?" she asked calmly but, her voice was harsh, much unlike how she acted earlier.

Emiko was probably thinking the same thing as she blinked in surprise, "Hiding?" she asked nervously, her voice cracking slightly. "We're not hiding anything." At her insistence Trisha's frown only intensified.

"I'm not stupid." She said bluntly.

Emiko stepped back, probably from the harshness of her tone, "I never said you we're ma'am" she replied.

"Just tell me," Trisha demanded, her eyes almost pleading now.

The dishwater blonde sighed in defeat. "Your sons are going to perform a human transmutation to try to bring you back," she admitted dejectedly.

The brunette blinked in surprise, and then frowned. "I may not be an alchemist, but even I know that's forbidden," she stated, arms still crossed over her chest. "Certainly they wouldn't do something so stupid," she insisted.

"I wouldn't call it stupid," Emiko said sadly, "more like desperate."

Trisha looked at the shorter woman, she seemed far away, a faint rueful smile playing on her lips, "you tried it, didn't you?" she asked, quickly putting two and two together.

Emiko's smile intensified, and there was an almost guilty look in her eyes. "How do you think I ended up here?" she asked. "Anyway, that's why I want to help them. I know the pain of going through human transmutation… too bad I wasn't one of the lucky ones. Never lived to see the result, I mean."

"I'm coming with you." Trisha said quickly. She was far from a slow person. She could tell right away that Emiko was going to try and stop those boys. What kind of a mother would she be if she wasn't there to stop her own sons from committing such a sin? Besides, from the moment she had suspected something was up, she was planning to stop it, or help in whatever way she could.

Emiko nodded, almost distractedly. "I think that would be best." With that, she took off again, running down the rest of the hallway and back into the lobby. She was running very fast, and Trisha was grateful that she wasn't sick anymore, or she wouldn't have been able to keep up. When they reached the large golden gates, Emiko waved her hand, and without stopping, and ran through them when they opened. Trisha continued to follow the shorter immortal down the now dirt path, until they reached a rather old looking wooden door. Trisha had no idea what was beyond the door, although, by the obvious paling in the shorter woman's face, she figured it wasn't a very nice place. She would do anything to help her sons in any way she could, though. After all, they were _her_ sons, and it was her duty to protect them, even in death.

Trisha was getting impatient now, though. Emiko could do nothing more than stare at the door as though it would electrocute her if she touched it. If she wasn't going to open it, Trisha reasoned, she would open it on her own. Slowly, she reached for the handle. She had never seen what was on the other side, but Emiko's hesitation, and the obvious reluctance on her face was making _her_ afraid. She took one last glance at the shorter woman, and quickly yanked the door open.

The first thing she noticed was how cold it was. The entire place was incredibly cold, much colder than she had expected. Not like the polar ice caps or anything like that, but much cooler than room temperature. She also noticed how odd the light was. It seemed blindingly bright, but then again not bright at all. The brunette blinked her emerald eyes in an attempt to adjust to the odd lighting, but it didn't help much. So, she cautiously stepped inside, Emiko following close behind just as cautiously. When the door shut behind her, she jumped, but quickly regained a semblance of calm. "H-hello?" she called out hesitantly, secretly hoping that nobody was home.

"Well, what do we have here?" a malicious voice asked. A voice that seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere at all. This entire place seemed to be one giant contradiction. Pushing these thoughts aside, she looked around in hopes of finding the source of the voice, but all she could see was pure white and a large pair of bronze doors with what looked like a large tree depicted on them. Unsure of what to do, she simply stood there. "A worker from the Crossroads, and a dead woman, eh?" the voice asked, echoing inside Trisha's mind in a frightening way. "Looks like the worker's pretty high up there, too," the voice observed.

"Who are you?" Trisha asked, her voice wavering. She was scared out of her mind, but her sons were involved. Their _lives_ were in danger. She would face death a second time to save her sons' lives.

A rather odd cloud formed before her. It was almost invisible, but it seemed to glow with… shadow. She could make out the silhouette of a person, or so she believed it to be, but she and the other workers also looked like people, though she could tell they weren't. "Isn't it obvious?" the voice asked, and this time Trisha could tell the figure in front of her was the one that caused the voice, though it still seemed to come from… wherever it had been coming from before. "I am Truth," the figure informed. The fear Trisha felt seemed to be intensifying with every passing moment, especially with the apparition of this… Truth. She wasn't sure what to make of it. The figure was obviously there, but then again, it didn't seem to be. It also seemed to radiate a sick cruelty, a very strong malevolence. Whatever it was, Trisha knew that it wasn't something to tangle with, and yet here she was, in his domain, and he could do what he would with her… It was terrifying. "I suppose you're here to help those children, yes?" he asked. He probably sensed her fear, because his nonexistent grin seemed to widen.

Trisha swallowed and nodded, "That's correct."

Truth seemed uninterested, "Honestly, I don't care what you do, I only want my payment for however far they go past the gate. So… how far do you say they can go?" he asked.

Trisha frowned, for someone this terrifying; he was rather generous, she had expected some fighting, some pleading, something… more difficult.

"As far as his left leg takes him." She heard Emiko say from beside her. His left leg? What was she talking about? She turned her head to look at Emiko, who was now frowning

Truth looked rather taken aback, but soon grinned his malicious nonexistent grin. "Deal," he agreed, and then motioned for the Gates to open.

-

Emiko couldn't help but feel as though she had made a mistake, and as the black arms reached out to pull her in, she realized that she forgot to tell Truth what to do with the other boy. She cursed her stupidity, and tried to struggle against the million snake-like arms that she felt were trying to tear her apart. "Wait! WAIT!" She called out trying to pull away.

"Too late, fool, you'll be pulled in, and as for the other child, what happens to him is up to me" he laughed. "Don't bother struggling; they'll only tear you apart if you do that."

-

Trisha looked at the figure in fright, and he only grinned back at her. She could tell he was just enjoying their pain, and she wouldn't let him anymore. She stopped struggling, closed her eyes and fit a calm looking mask in place. She would let the arms take her anywhere they wanted to, she would find a way out of it; after all, Emiko had been through this before. She knew what she was doing, right? Oh, she could only hope. The last thing she saw before she was engulfed in darkness was Truth, still grinning as the Gate shut behind her.

oOo

When Trisha opened her eyes, she found herself in a small room, that she recognized to be the living room in her house. It was littered with books, and empty containers, and in the center was a large intricate transmutation circle.

"Jordan was serious, this is a human transmutation circle," She heard Emiko murmur from beside her.

She didn't care what it was, she knew it was wrong. She put on her best "angry mother" face and planted her fists on her hips. "Edward, Alphonse, stop this," she scolded, but both of boys acted as though they couldn't hear her.

"They can't hear you," Emiko said quietly a few moments later. "Somehow we've been transported to the living world through the gate. In the living world, we're nothing more than a pair of spiritual entities. If you were to scream right now, only someone who had just died would hear you." She looked at Trisha, a rather bland expression on her face, "You can't touch them either."

Trisha didn't want to believe it. This seemed completely real. To test the other woman's words, she reached out to stop Alphonse from dumping something into a large basin in the center of the array, but her hand passed right through him. "What?" she asked quietly.

"This was something Truth planned," Emiko concluded. "He's planning to torture us… by making us see what they do without letting us do anything…. This must be our payment for helping them." Her voice remained flat, but there seemed to be something else lingering just beneath it. Something sad.

And all they could do was sit helplessly and watch, as both boys cut their fingers.  
"And... For the soul." Edward said, holding his bleeding finger over the basin, and signaling for Alphonse to do the same. When a few drops of the crimson liquid fell into the basin, the two boys crouched down outside the circle, and placed their hands on the white lines, "Here it goes, Al" the golden blonde said.  
"Yup." Alphonse replied, looking at his brother confidently.  
"NO!" Emiko shouted, even though she was the one who said they couldn't hear her, "Don't do it!" she pleaded, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She was probably reliving her own experience, Trisha concluded.  
They both pressed their hands to the floor, and squeezed their eyes shut. Trisha shielded her eyes as the circle activated, and the room filled with a gold light. Both boys opened their eyes and smiled, they were sure everything was going as planned, until the room started getting darker, and the light from the circle turned violet.

"NO!" Emiko shouted again when Edward looked around in alarm.  
"Brother, something's wrong." Alphonse said to his older brother. In the next moment, the two boy's bodies started to disintegrate, and Trisha heard Emiko mutter something about the beginning of Hell.  
"Al!" Edward yelled. Trisha had no idea what was going on, but she could hear Emiko say something like 'not a rebound'

"Brother. Brother! BROTHER!" Al shouted reaching for his older brother, who reached back.  
"AL!" the older one shouted as his little brother's body disappeared completely. In the next moment, everything was black again.

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**Revised: April 4, 2008**

**Ugh. It kind of feels like the chapters are getting more and more difficult to rewrite. :) I'm trying my hardest to get things right this time around. Let me know how I'm doing?**

**Like I've said before, reviews are appreciated if you have anything to say. Constructive criticism is great. It's also lovely just to hear someone say something like "hey, I like this story, write more" But I won't demand reviews, because if I did then I'd be a huge hypocrite. But it's nice to know who's reading and how they like it, of course you all understand. :)**

**-the Minako-baka**


	4. Chapter IV

**AM: I'm soooooooo sorry for the huge delay! I was suffering from a severe case of writers block. (I couldn't write anything, trust me…) But I'm back, and better than ever! (I hope…) And Tori-kun has returned!  
TK: Announcing that you can't write without me only boost my ego, and gives me ways to torture you…  
AM: -blink- you're a muse, Tori, you're supposed to inspire me…. –sound of clinking metal and a clicking sound is heard- There! Holds up left hand, that is now handcuffed to Tori's wrist-  
TK: WTF!  
AM: Now I can never lose you again! XD  
TK: Dammit…**

**Thanks: Kara (Neo Diji)**

**Oh, and 'VD for VANDitta' I've gots a question for you, if you're actually reading this… When you said they were both guys, I assume you were referring to Roy and Edward, correct? If you really want to say anything on my choice of pairings, I would have preferred that you did so when I actually got to the pairing… call me crazy I s'pose… (No wait, I _am_ crazy…) Ahem, I really don't mean to sound mean or anything… And I don't really see the problem with two guys being paired together anyways… love is love, ne? No matter what gender or age you may be… -shrugs- sorry you feel that way, su.  (Anyway, sorry for wasting everyone else's time… you could have just skipped over this, you know…)**

**Disclaimer: ……………………………………………………………………………………….**

**TK: That means what do you think?  
AM: Exactly! XD Oh, right… and I you can take it as OOCness or not… I don't take it as such… but whatever… Trisha may or may not be OOC depending on how you decide to interpret it… and this is probably gonna be my longest chapter, since I wanna get past all this stuff and start new stuff in the next chapter. XD**

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**Chapter IV: Transmutation Part III**

Trisha had a feeling that they were back behind the Gate, though she wasn't sure what she was doing back there. She could hear muffled voices though. One belonged to Truth, that she could tell right away, and the other belonged to her eldest son. Soon enough, the Gates opened, and Trisha could see the golden haired boy being pulled through the gate by those horrible black arms. He was screaming loudly, and Truth scoffed.  
"Be quiet," He commanded, then asked, "isn't this what you wanted?" Edward continued to scream, which nearly tore Trisha's heart to pieces, "I'll show you 'True Knowledge'" she heard Truth say.

To Trisha, there was nothing new there, for she had seen the 'True Knowledge' when she died, and Jordan had told her that everyone that died did, but she could tell that Edward was seeing bits of that 'True Knowledge' reserved only for the dead.

"This isn't right!" Emiko yelled.

Soon enough, she could hear her son's thoughts.  
_Stop! My head is gonna explode! I'm gonna be mutilated! NO! Please stop!_ She could tell he was close by how loud his thoughts were, and soon she could see him. "Mom..." he said as he reached for her.

Trisha reached back, all she wanted to do right now was hold him tightly and try to make his pain go away.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Emiko screamed, grabbing Trisha and pulling her back. Trisha was couldn't understand why Emiko wouldn't want her to touch her son, but before she could ask, Edward vanished, and soon after, she found herself lying on her stomach in front of the Gate.  
"Have a nice trip?" Truth asked; his voice drenched in spite.

She heard Emiko cough behind her, "What. The. Hell?" the dishwater blonde demanded.  
Truth only grinned, but refused to answer her.  
"Where's the younger brother?" Emiko demanded, standing up.  
Truth's grin widened, and Emiko's eyes narrowed, "WHERE IS HE!" she demanded. Truth's grin never wavered as he pointed somewhere behind him.

Trisha's eyes followed his finger to her son, Alphonse, sitting on the ground quite a ways behind him, looking absolutely terrified. She walked over to him, and crouched down in front of him, in order to get eye-level. She said nothing, but reached her hand out to him. His eyes widened in surprise, "Mom…" he said quietly, and took her hand, clinging to it so tightly, that Trisha thought her hand might break. Her poor boy probably went through the same things Edward did, or worse. She was glaring at Truth now, just as Emiko was.

"Take us home." The shorter woman demanded.

Truth's grin, soon turned into a sneer, "You're not in the position to demand things like that," he said. Emiko stood there staring at him, "When the kid went through the gate, I got his leg in payment, but if I let you leave, and with the kid, what will I get? I don't know if you've ever heard of the concept 'Equivalent Exchange' but I happen to live by it." He said.   
Trisha had a feeling that he had never been planning to let them go. What could either of them possibly give him in return for the freedom of three people?

Truth's grin suddenly came back full force, as he held out his right arm, "Back for more, are we?" he asked, as a human arm began to materialize. It was then that Trisha looked down at his left leg, which was also flesh. What was going on here? Alphonse's grip loosened on her hand, and he fell toward the floor. Luckily, Trisha caught him before he could hit is head, and when she looked up she saw Emiko behind Truth, kneeled on the floor, writing something. The dishwater blonde stood and motioned toward herself, which Trisha took as a _'come here'_. So, quickly, while Truth seemed preoccupied, she gathered the small boy in her arms and rushed over to the shorter woman who immediately slammed her hands on the ground when Trisha came close to her.

The brunette woman stopped in her tracks as an elaborate array lit up on the floor around Emiko and herself. Immediately she could identify the intricate assemblage of symbols as a transmutation circle, but the insides was more elaborate than even the human transmutation circle on her living room floor. A rather odd sensation rippled through her body, and the next thing she saw was the pair of large golden gates at the front of the Crossroads. She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be out of that place at last.

"I'm sure your son could do that better than I…" she heard Emiko mutter from beside her, "That is… depending on what he saw…"

Trisha looked over at the shorter woman to see her brushing the dust off of her white dress. When she straightened herself, Trisha heard her curse softly. The brunette followed Emiko's gaze to the gates where Jordan and Kameko stood, both looking equally unhappy. However, when Kameko noticed the child in Trisha's arms, she rushed over and immediately checked his pulse.

"Follow me." She ordered, and turned on her heels. She rushed quickly down the marble walkway and into the building.

Trisha did as was requested of her, and noticed that Emiko and Jordan were also following closely behind herself.

When they reached a small room on the 3rd floor, Kameko held to door open for Trisha, who noted that the room looked similar to one you would find in a hospital. She also noted that Kameko began preparing the bed somewhat similar to the way a practiced nurse would. In a matter of moments she was taking Alphonse from Trisha's arms, and placing him on the small hospital like bed. When the blonde seemed satisfied that her 'patient' was comfortable, she turned around and smiled, "I practiced for seven years as a nurse in Japan… when I was alive, that is…"

At Trisha's confused look, Jordan elaborated, "Japan is a country another dimension… Rather similar to your Areugo (1)" Trisha nodded in silent understanding.

Kameko had soon returned to attending to Alphonse, and Emiko had left the room. Kameko had probably ordered the dishwater blonde to fetch something for her.

After a long gap of silence, the petite platinum blonde spoke, "Here's what I know… As far as I can tell, this boy is similar to a comatose patient. I don't know how long he'll be like this, or if he'll ever even wake up at all… In my world alchemy is a bogus science… but it seems as though in the world he's from, it's real…" she paused and regarded the boy with a saddened stare, "If you wanna know the specifics, ask Emiko, she's the one who studied alchemy." She sighed and turned around, "I'll do what I can to take care of him, but in a place like this, with no sufficient medical equipment, it's rather difficult, especially because he's a living being, and we're not…" Before she could continue, Emiko returned with a glass of water, in her hands.

"So what's the deal on this kid, Emiko?" Jordan asked bluntly.

Emiko set the glass on a nearby nightstand and wrung her hands together rather guiltily; she could have prevented this, after all. Quickly, she gave them another one of her grins to cover up the guilt on her face, "Well, I'm no expert on soul transmutation, but it seems to me as though your eldest son bound this one's…" she motioned to Alphonse, "… to something in the living world. I'm not entirely sure what's with him…" again, she gestured to the young boy on the bed, "But hopefully, this will all work out for the best." She forced her grin to widen, and now it was painfully obvious she was faking it.

"Excuse me," A small voice called out from the doorway.

The four conscious occupants in the room, turned to look in the direction of the voice to see a small mousy looking girl with odd sky blue hair, and eyes of the same color. She wore a pair of large square framed glasses, and flinched slightly under the women's gazes. Trisha noted that the band on her arm was also the same sky blue as her hair, meaning she was a messenger or a bookkeeper, probably a messenger. "Shii-sama requests the presence of Emiko, Kameko, and Jordan." She said timidly, then bowed and hurried away.

Jordan sighed and ran a hand through her short brown hair. She closed her olive green eyes and muttered something about 'dead, or death', which, honestly could be just about anything in this world. She opened her eyes, straightened out her posture, and marched out the door. Emiko plastered an annoyed look on her face, and followed.

Kameko merely smiled at Trisha, "There are no visiting hours." She said, before walking out the door after the two women.

Trisha interpreted what Kameko said as _'feel free to stay as long as you like'_ and sat down in a chair, continently positioned beside the bed her son ways lying on. At first, her expression held a motherly smile, as she brushed her fingertips across her son's cheek. As soon as she moved her hand, however, she pressed her lips into a fine line, and a frown graced her brow, "What were you thinking?" she asked, knowing that she wouldn't receive an answer, "Even I knew that human transmutation is not only forbidden alchemy, and the breaking of a taboo, but a serious crime." She sighed in agitation. Even though she knew Alphonse couldn't hear her, talking helped her let the frustration out, "Did you really think you could pull it off? You could go against the laws of nature? That you could play God?" her voice raised a little with each question, "How arrogant…" she muttered, resting her forehead in one of her hands, "To think that two children could accomplish what men much older and wiser couldn't, to believe they could tread on God's forbidden territory and not think about paying a price." Her frown deepened, "And what would happen if you _had_ succeeded?" she asked, "Did you think that I'd be _proud_ of you for doing such a thing?" she asked the silence incredulously, "Did you really think things could go back to the way they were before I died?" she laughed bitterly, "I'm a fool…" she berated herself, "Somehow this is my fault… I went wrong somewhere when raising you… But… I really never thought you would do something so… stupid!" she said, for lack of a better word. "I thought you had more sense than that." She said, much quieter, clenching her other hand into a fist in her lap, as a teardrop fell, "How could this have happened?" she wondered aloud, "Edward and you… what are you going through now?" she sniffed quietly "Pain, I'm sure… and depression, anger…" she squeezed her eyes shut as more tears fell, "How could this have happened?" she asked again.

The brunette woman's emerald eyes flew open when she felt a hand gently and hesitantly touch the one fisted in her lap. When she looked up she gasped again, and covered her mouth with her other hand. There, touching her hand was her son, Alphonse. Well, it looked like Alphonse; his eyes were clouded by something, and filled with confusion, and maybe a little pain. This person was her son, but then again… he wasn't. It was as if not all of him was there, and what Trisha was seeing was just a fragment of him. Regardless, she gave him a pained smile, and embraced him, as new tears came to take the place of the old ones.

oOo

In the conference room Emiko had burst into, no more than an hour before, the three highly ranked workers stood at the far end of the long wooden table, facing the same figure that was still cloaked in shadow. The figure regarded them for a moment and then turned it's back on them to look out the window behind it. "You are dismissed." The figure said in her melodic, yet painful voice. The three bowed to the figure, even though their back was turned, and Jordan and Kameko shot the dishwater blonde heated glares, while Emiko's expression remained irritated as it usually was.

oOo

"This is all your fault." Kameko muttered, wringing out a rag, and glaring at Emiko.

The dishwater blonde only shrugged in response and continued scrubbing the marble floor of the hallway in small circles, a small smile playing on her face.

Jordan only sighed in agitation from the ladder she was standing on, "I don't know why Kameko and I got punished as well…" she muttered wiping some dust from the large crystal chandelier that hung in the lobby.

Emiko smirked, "Jordan, you did nothing to stop me when I tried to leave, Kameko didn't distract Trisha like she should have, and both of you aided in bringing a live human, into the crossroads." She said, smiling knowingly.

Jordan rolled her eyes in exasperation, "If it's human, it's most likely alive…" she muttered.

"Oh shut up." Emiko replied, dipping her rag in a nearby bucket, and wringing out the water.

"This is all your fault." Kameko repeated, glaring daggers at Emiko.

"I know, Kameko." Emiko said, shifting her weight to her knees and grinning at the shortest of the three, "But we're getting what we deserve." She said. She was thoroughly enjoying her friends' misery, even if she had to bear it too.

Kameko's eyes narrowed, and she grabbed the handle of the bucket. In the next moment, there was a bucket full of soapy, and perhaps dirty water flying at the dishwater blonde. The base of the metal container hit her in the forehead with enough force to knock her backward, and the water splashed everywhere because of the power of the impact.

Kameko smirked triumphantly at the dishwater blonde who was also smirking, despite the blood gushing from the wound on her forehead and rolling down her face. "Now you gotta go get more water." She said, grinning and teetering slightly when she sat up, due to a massive amount of blood loss.

Jordan only sighed in irritation.

* * *

**(1) I have a feeling this is incorrect, all I really did was look at the arrangement of the letters of the different country names, and picked out the only one that seemed most like a Japanese word… -sweatdrop-**

**AM: So… what do you think? Was Trisha OOC or not? And was my depressing attempt at comedy at the end even in the least bit funny? Or should I never write comedy again?  
TK: How does Emiko lose blood? She doesn't _have_ blood to lose!  
AM: I know that! That was for comedy's sake! (is still handcuffed to Tori-kun, by the way)  
TK: T.T You're an idiot…  
AM: But I know you love me, right, Tori-kun?  
TK: No…  
AM: -scoffs- fine! You meanie head! –Walks off to angst corner, and angsts-  
TK: That's not angsting, that's pouting! Get it right, idiot!  
AM: -hurt glare-  
TK: -raises eyebrows- well then… that's all for now!  
AM: -glomps Tori-  
TK: WTF?  
AM: Seriously, though, I really need some encouragement right now. Even if it's just one word. Just a simple "interesting" or "update soon" will suffice! I really need to know if people like this story! (Is feeling really insecure) PLEASE! I especially need the encouragement now… I've got a lot of stuff going on that makes me want to give up on it… so, please review. –Gets on knees- PLEASE!**

**-Ai (love)**

**Minako-baka**


	5. Chapter V

**AM: And I'm back! With the 5th chapter, yay me!  
TK: Yeah… yay… now take these handcuffs off…  
AM: No way in hell, mister muse.  
TK: -glare-  
AM: Anyway, I've finally gotten to this part, which makes me uber happy. Along with the fact that I finally make my first skip between dimensions! XD (the xXx signals a skip between dimensions, and the oOo is a scene change, just so you know) Umm… I'm rather happy about most of this chapter… but I'm kinda unsure about the last part… so, when you've read it, some words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. XD But… maybe I should get on with it…**

**Thanks: Neo Diji, Invader- Nehima, and Kuropuu**

**AM: And I would also like to thank Ninkasa from Touka Kouken (the Hagren fanworks archive) for their lovely case study of the RoyEd relationship. I'm always using this to get me back in the RoyEd mood XD Thanks so much (even though you're probably not reading this)  
TK: You forgot the disclaimer…  
AM: There's one on the first chapter… I don't think anyone's stupid enough to think that anyone posting work on this site owns the series they're posting about… so just leave me alone… T.T**

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**Chapter V: Book**

It had been 5 years since the human transmutation incident, and Trisha had still yet to cross over. Alphonse -whom they had brought to the Crossroads when they went to rescue Edward and her son from suffering the same fate as the enigmatic employee of the Crossroads, Emiko- had aged unlike the rest of the occupants of the Crossroads. Emiko had theorized that this was due to the fact that the boy wasn't dead, and still held a fragment of his soul within his body –though most of it remained in Amestris, bound to a suit of armor (which Emiko had failed to mention). The now 15 year old boy spent a lot of time around his mother, Trisha, though the he barely talked.

It was comforting to the brunette mother to be around her youngest son, though he lacked some of the energy of the one she remembered, though his passion for books remained.

Trisha clearly recalled the day the boy had actually spoken, and asked if there were any books around the Crossroads. Jordan, who happened to overhear the request, forced Kameko to show them the library –why Jordan wouldn't do it herself, though, remained a mystery to both mother and son.

The library Kameko escorted them to, was the entire top floor, and Kameko had mentioned that the millions of books they possessed were not only from Amestris, but also from many of the other worlds they received Cadavre (1)–as the workers there called the people arriving.

Since the discovery of the library, Alphonse had visited there everyday, to get lost in the numerous tomes of other worlds. Whether it was fiction or nonfiction, the boy's eyes lit up when he picked out a new one, his knowledge of the other dimensions growing vastly in such a small amount of time.

Trisha had also grown fond of the daily visits to the library. She could always pass the time with a nice romantic novel, which she found could be very fascinating when the author lived in a world you were unfamiliar with. One of her favorite books took place in a country called Matsudai, which Jordan had explained meant 'forever'. Of course, the talkative brunette had gone on to explain that each citizen in Matsudai was born with a specific power, and each power was somehow related to your family tree, though sometimes they could be random. Then she had gone off to tell a story about a friend she had who was a 'fire user' –as she had called the girl- whose mother was an 'ice user' as well as her father. Though she had also mentioned that she suspected that her friend was not legitimately her father's child, and that her mother had an affair or one-night-stand of sorts. To which Trisha had wrinkled her nose, which only caused Jordan to laugh. (2)

Trisha had assumed that Jordan had come from the world of Matsudai, and that was why she was able to read minds. When Trisha had formed this thought, Jordan had immediately responded with an, "Exactly" which only made Trisha wonder more about the country.

One day Trisha could never forget, was the day a pink-haired girl, who appeared to be in her late teens suddenly appeared in the room wearing a yet another variation of the white dress the workers of the Crossroads wore. The band around her arm was sky blue, meaning she was a bookkeeper, and Trisha assumed she was fairly new here, since she hadn't seen the girl around before. At that same time, a man had appeared behind her, one man that she would _never_ be able to forget.

The man was tall, and broad shouldered; he held a smug grin on his angled face. He had short black hair, and wore a pair of rectangular glasses. Trisha also notice that the man had an odd looking beard, and wore the uniform of an Amestris military officer.

When he looked at her, his expression changed to that of astonishment, though Trisha was unsure as to why the man was so surprised to see her. She had never met him, let alone seen him, but he seemed to recognize her. Swiftly he made his way over to her and sat in a chair near her own. "Hello, ma'am, I was just curious, but would you happen to be Trisha Elric?" he asked.

Trisha looked at the man, her own surprise finding it's way to her face, "I am" she replied, and before she could ask him how he knew, the man was already talking.

"I'm Maes Hughes." He introduced himself, then adjusted his glasses, "I'm well… I _was_ a friend of your sons'." He said.

"You knew my sons?" she asked.

The man who called himself Maes nodded, "Great kids" he said, nodding in agreement to himself.

Trisha smiled, and hoped he would go on to say how they were, but instead, the man cocked his head to the side, and the light reflected off his glassed, obscuring his catlike green eyes. Suddenly he burst out of nowhere in a rather childish voice, "I've gotta daughter, you wanna see her? Her name's Elysia, and she's really sweet! Like an angel of cuteness!" the man was talking a mile a minute, and when he reached into his breast pocket, he stopped and frowned. "No pictures?" he wondered to himself.

Just then, the pink haired girl from earlier appeared, "I know where I can get you some pictures!" she chirped, bounding over to a shelf on the west side of the room. Maes had soon returned to talking about his daughter, and Trisha smiled and nodded. (This had surprised the family man at first, as he was so used to people shooing him away whenever he mentioned his precious daughter.)

-

The pink haired girl bounded over to the west side of the building where the records of the Cadavre were kept, at least the ones currently residing in the Crossroads. The other records were stored in a large underground room, off limits to the Cadavre, and lower ranked workers. She quickly scanned the large shelf searching for the man's name. Spotting the name Maes Hughes printed in elaborate gold on the spine of a blue colored book, she pulled it out, causing another one to slide with it and fall to the floor. The book's cover was burgundy, and when it hit the floor, it fell open to the last page.

Curious, the pinkette (3) picked up the book and closed it. She frowned, the spine of the book was wider than the amount of pages it held, and carefully she flipped it over to the cover, curious of who could possess something so odd. On the front cover in the same elaborate text was the name 'Trisha Elric'. The pinkette wrinkled her nose, and opened the book to the last page. Upon seeing the condition of the book, she gasped, and dropped the other one she was holding. From the appearance of the book, it seemed as though many of the pages had been torn out of the back. The girl looked toward the two Cadavre in alarm, and closed the book. Quickly, she picked up the other book she had been holding, and rushed back to them. She opened the book, and smiled, then quickly ran out the door. She had to report this to Emiko!

-

Mae's grinned, there was an entire chapter in the book the girl had given him full of pictures he had taken of his precious Elysia! He grinned; he wouldn't be bored for a looooong time.

oOo

Emiko frowned and read over the words on the page carefully. There was something odd about how the last line was worded, as if Trisha was on the brink of making a recovery, then just… died… She looked up at the pink-haired bookkeeper, who wrung her hands together nervously under the dishwater blonde's intense amethyst gaze. "Where did you find this?" she asked the bookkeeper harshly.

The pinkette winced at her callous tone and answered, "It was on the records shelf… and out of the alphabetical order" she said quietly.

Emiko nodded once, then waved a hand at the girl in dismissal. "Thank you." She said gruffly.

The young girl bowed politely and left.

**xXx**

Roy Mustang growled in pure frustration. Frustration at the paperwork piling up on his desk that was due in 20 minutes, frustration at himself for being so damn lazy up until now, frustration at the emotions playing through his head, and frustration at that damn blonde for constantly invading his thoughts. He sighed in agitation, and pulled the first page from the stack of paperwork currently sitting on his desk. He was really in a tight spot right now. The pile was at least three inches thick, and it was all due in less than twenty minutes. He was screwed. Hawkeye would fill him full of holes, and feed him to Black Hayate, or, she wouldn't do anything, and allow him to incur the wrath of his higher ups, or she could make up a legal document saying that if he became fuhrer, the women _wouldn't _have to wear those tiny miniskirts, or she would make copies of his paperwork and he would be too worried about finishing it to notice, so he'd be stuck signing the same thing over and over and over again, or… or… Did I mention he was screwed?

Quickly, he grabbed the first sheet off the top of the pile, scanned it to get the general idea of what it was asking for, and hurriedly scribbled his signature down, all the while, his thoughts barely staying on his paperwork, but on a certain blonde that always, _always_ managed to enter his thoughts.

That was the problem about having a private office, you were always alone, which meant you were always alone with your thoughts.

He couldn't seem to get the boy out of his mind lately. No… he supposed he'd always been there, always lurking in the back of his mind. He had always feared for the golden haired teen's safety, going out on a limb just to make sure the boy didn't die. He sighed again… what was this? How much did he really care for the boy? A lot more than he cared for his other subordinates –and that was already a lot. It couldn't possibly be love, could it? That would make him sound pedophilic, but Edward _was_ sixteen, and that was legal age. He sighed, and sat there with his thoughts for a moment, then sucked in a breath and glanced at the clock. 11: 55…._ Is it just me, or is this day going by really slowly…?_ He wondered to himself. He glanced back down at the slowly shrinking pile… at least he had made _some_ progress……

_**HOLY SHIT! FIVE MINUTES LEFT!**_

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**(1) Cadavre is French for 'corpse'…. Heh… I don't know why I decided to go with French… I usually go with Japanese… but I went with that… o.O don't ask… I'm warped…  
(2) My beta caught that one… Matsudai is a country I created from one of my very first original stories (it's on if anyone wants to read it, "Tsukiakari Senshi") anyway… yeah… and the 'fire user' who was born to two 'ice users' heh…. She caught that one too… just a bunch of references to my (stillunfinished) original fiction XD (just in case you wanted to know…)  
(3) Bwahahaha! I've invented a new word! 'Pinkette' XD**

**AM: Umm… yeah……………. Man… it was really difficult (and odd) to make the transition from the Crossroads to Amestris… since I wanted to keep going with the Crossroads thing, but Tori-kun wouldn't allow it…  
TK: You're darn right! You need to get those two together first! Then… YOU NEED TO REMOVE THESE HANDCUFFS!  
AM: -shifty eyes- but if I remove 'em; you'll run awayyyyyy…. Anyways… I just noticed that I've got a heluva lot cut out for me now… and it's gonna be hard… This is because I'm so used to reading Gravitation Fanfiction, and Yuki and Shuichi's relationship is just so…… pure…. And they're both so deeply in love…. (or maybe that's just how my twisted mind_ wants_ to percieve it) But anyway, it's gonna be a rather difficult transition for me to make, to get back into the RoyEd groove…. X( Buuuuut… I might be able to pull it off! (Gods I hope so….)  
Anyways...  
**

**-Ai **

**Minako-baka**


	6. Chapter VI

**AM: Hello, everyone. First off, let me apologize for the wait… I would have updated a couple weeks ago, but I was at my grandma's house that weekend, and my notes weren't with me. Then life got in the way of things a bit… stupid life! I wish it would just leave me alone! XO  
Then, lastly, I was hit with a nice little case of writer's block until today… Eheh… And my mother's birthday was yesterday yay! If anyone wants to see the picture I drew her for her birthday, there's a link at the end of the story!  
TK: That's off topic, I thought you were apologizing for things; you're not done yet.  
AM: Oh, right, then I was reading over what I've written so far in the story, in hopes of overcoming, the afore mentioned writer's block, and noticed that in chapter 4, I contradicted myself. I'm surprised nobody else caught it… o.O  
In chapter 2, Emiko said, _"Let me convince Truth about how far he'll allow one of them to go. I know that if only one comes back they'll try a soul transmutation. I _know_ it will work."_  
And then, in chapter 4, Emiko realizes that she forgot to mention what Truth should do with Alphonse… Sorry about that. I've fixed it, along with some other minor bugs…. I suppose that's what you get for not having the plot totally thought up when you start a story… I s'pose I got too eager to write this one… -sweatdrop- So, would you guys forgive me? –down on knees with a spotlight shining on her- _Please_ forgive me! Please!  
TK: feh… would you stop?  
AM: -light stops shining- Heh! And Tori-kun's just mad cause he's still handcuffed to me –gringrin- No matter how bloated his ego's getting since Neo Diji's been praising him n.n heh  
TK: That's right, because she knows how truly awesome I am! –Strikes a triumphant pose- The world should know of my awesomeness!  
AM: And one day, we'll rule it… but right now… maybe I should thank my dear reviewers and get onto the story, eh?  
TK: -crosses arms- feh…  
AM: Okay!  
**

**Thanks: Neo Diji, Me And My God Complex, Kuropuu, Invader-Nehima, Jade Rotaski Queen of the Damned, and ZaKai**

**AM: Yays! Thanks if any of you were lurkers who decided to finally review –tears stream down face, and spotlight focuses on her- Thank you ever so much!  
TK: Stop crying, and get to work…  
AM: … -light switches off- Righto! LET'S GOOOOO! (Yeah, I'm uber hyper today)**

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**Chapter VI: Accidents, and Discoveries**

The dark haired colonel sighed in relief, and smirked at the stack of finished paperwork in front of him. He glanced at the clock and noticed that he finished with about 30 seconds to spare. _'Well done, Mustang'_ he praised himself, just as Hawkeye walked through the door to retrieve the papers, and drop off… another stack. Oh God. Was the paperwork ever going to end?

He groaned inwardly, and made a face at Hawkeye's retreating back, fully not expecting a bullet to speed past his head. Dark optics widened to about three times their normal size as the blonde woman, who reminded Roy of a secretary sometimes, mirrored the smirk he had previously worn, as she turned the safety back on, and replaced the gun she was holding into the holster on her hip. She silently left the room, smirking; and all her commanding officer could do was stare in shock after her.

He noticed that Hawkeye hadn't told him when the papers were due this time, he decided to put it off until later… and began pondering whether Hawkeye had eyes in the back of her head or not. It wasn't impossible here, after all. She could have gone through some alchemic process or gotten into an accident that left her with an extra pair of eyes hidden under her golden blonde hair.

Of course, the thought of golden blonde hair reminded him of Edward, which made him realize just how much he wanted to see the boy right now. It was mysterious, the longing he felt, just to see the boy scowl or shout something about his lack of height. As long as the boy was acknowledging his presence it was enough for him. Of course, right when this came to mind, he mentally slapped himself. What was wrong with him? Not only was _Fullmetal_ another man, but he was also the colonel's subordinate, _and_ a minor… No… that wasn't true, Edward had celebrated his 16th birthday a month ago. That was why he and Alphonse had left for Risembool then… that was why the blonde had _mailed_ Roy his last report, instead of delivering it in person. He knew that if he stopped by to report, Roy would just send him off on another mission.

Roy sighed ruefully, he really was too hard on the blonde… but… bad attention was better than no attention at all…

oOo

The very blonde constantly invading Roy's mind stomped down the halls of Central HQ scowling at anyone who dared _smile_ at him. He wasn't in the mood for cheery; of course, he also wasn't in the mood for sad, angry, or any other emotion either… To say that he was simply in a bad mood would be a vast understatement.

"I swear, if that bastard says _anything_ about my height today, I'll…" he decided to leave the threat hanging, though, because he was currently sending a heated glare at a poor secretary, who was simply trying to get past him without incurring the wrath of the infamous Fullmetal Alchemist. Of course, while the poor woman was trying to pass him, she noticed the suit of armor looming over her. Though the younger brother was probably trying to assure her that his brother wouldn't hurt her, it only served to frighten her more. The poor secretary ran off without another word, and Alphonse sighed in exasperation, the poor woman, that was the third in this hallway alone.

While Alphonse was musing about all the women Ed had scared off, said blonde had already made his way to his commanding officer's office, kicked the door open, and walked inside, slamming the door in his wake.

If the seven foot tall suit of armor could show emotion, his expression would probably be a mix of relief and concern. Relived that he would have an excuse _not_ to follow his brother, and concern for the colonel's life.

Of course, he loved his brother, but even he found it unpleasant to be around the older blonde when he was in a bad mood. So, he opted to stay just outside the door, just in case he had to save Colonel Mustang's life, if it was needed.

**xXx**

Emiko growled in frustration. Currently she was sitting in a deserted corner of the library on the top floor of the Crossroads surrounded in masses of books with records of the Crossroads' history, as well as the history of all the workers in the Crossroads with control over a Shinigami. She was incredibly upset with whomever it was that gave the Shinigami an order to send Trisha's soul to the Crossroads. Of course, it would be an even bigger mess if it had been the Shinigami's decision to retrieve Trisha's soul. It would mean there was a Shinigami going against their oath. Because, as a Shinigami, they had to promise not to retrieve the soul of someone who they weren't assigned to retrieve the soul of. She waved the pink haired bookkeeper that had given her Trisha's book yesterday. The pinkette approached her cautiously; fearful of the frustrated look the dishwater blonde was giving her.

"Y-yes'm," she asked quietly, possessing the same accent as Kameko.

"I want the records of all the Shinigami working as of five years ago." The dishwater blonde demanded as snappily as always.

The pinkette bowed and rushed away toward the corner directly across from Emiko. She returned with 27 books stacked one on top of the other, and carried them over with ease.

Though Emiko wondered how the girl was capable of doing something so difficult like that as effortlessly as she did, she didn't voice it.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are Shinigami?" the pinkette ventured when she placed the stack on the table.

Emiko looked up from the book she was scanning through and focused on the pinkette, whose interest was written all over her face. The dishwater blonde sighed, and closed the book she was currently looking through, there was nothing helpful in it anyway. She began to explain, her curt tone dissipating for the moment. "Shinigami are the ones sent from the crossroads to retrieve the souls of the Cadavre who haven't died yet. I suppose they're the true cause of death, if you want to think of them that way. Shinigami are sent to the different worlds to guide the souls to the crossroads." She directed her amethyst gaze to the pinkette girl, "Like the grim reaper in some world's superstitions and legends… Except not as… grim."

The pinkette nodded in understanding, and soon Emiko was struck by her own question.

"What's your name, kid?" she asked, her callous tone returning.

The pinkette blinked at Emiko's sudden change of moods, but didn't say anything about it. Instead, she answered her senior's question, "Mei." She replied, smiling and walking away.

Emiko sighed again, and returned to her work, even more disturbed than before, now that she had decided a Shinigami collecting Trisha's soul without an order was a possibility.

**xXx**

Edward had quickly entered the office in hopes of getting the torture over with quickly, but luck didn't seem to be on his side today… Actually… nobody seemed to be on his side today. Well, then. Everybody could just die! Including that bastard colonel, no, _especially_ that bastard colonel. With thoughts of the colonel's false impending doom rushing through his head, he couldn't help but release an evil chuckle.

Apparently, Roy hadn't even noticed that Edward had entered the room –being too caught up in his own thoughts about said boy- and the chuckles caught his attention. Snapping out of his musings, he looked up at the…. Rather sinister looking major in front of him. He couldn't help but feel at least a little disturbed by his subordinate –who looked to be plotting someone's downfall. "Earth to Fullmetal." Roy called, hoping to break the youth out of his… insane laughter.

Edward immediately directed a glare toward his superior, how dare he! "Shut up!" he snapped, bad mood returning, worse than before now that he was in his commanding officer's office.

Of course, the second he snapped, there was that damn smirk, the one that seemed to now exactly what had put Edward in such a mood –though, in reality, Roy hadn't the slightest idea why the blonde was so cross… of course, neither did Edward.

oOo

Not two minutes after Alphonse had stationed himself outside the colonel's office, he heard muffled yelling –which was undoubtedly his brother's voice- coming from inside the room. If the younger Elric had eyes, he would have rolled them, but instead, he sighed in exasperation, and opened the door, in hopes of either calming his brother, or aiding the colonel.

Inside, it was just as he had expected, Edward was ranting about… lack of respect, how short he _wasn't_, and how Mustang was such a bastard… the usual. Although, when he turned to see the colonel's expression, the smug smirk he was expecting was missing, in fact, the man looked positively irate.

Alphonse supposed his brother had said something especially insulting… or else, his bad mood was contagious, and the colonel caught it.

While he was pondering what had caused his brother's commanding officer to be so upset, said man broke his musings when he bellowed, "FULLMETAL, WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!"

Of course, Edward never did as he was told, and retaliated with the question he had probably asked three or four times before now, "Why do you always have to be such a bastard!"

Under normal circumstances, Roy probably would have had a witty response prepared, but apparently, his anger had killed all rational thought, because Roy immediately replied, "Maybe it's because I really like you, Ed!" Yeah… his rational thought was dead…

The entire room was silent.

Roy was as pale as a ghost, and perfectly contrasted Edward, who was turning red enough to shame his coat.

The blonde opened and closed his mouth a couple times, making him look akin to a fish, before he turned on his heels, and ran out of the room. His sudden departure caused a secretary to drop the stack of papers she was carrying, and an officer to spill coffee on himself –and probably a good amount of the flying papers.

Alphonse said nothing, but regarded the colonel for a few minutes, bowed politely, and calmly left the room, shutting the door behind him on his way out.

Roy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up even more. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and muttered the only word that could come to mind, "…shit…"

**xXx**

Emiko stood up from the table she was seated at, and slammed her hands down loudly, causing Mei to jump in surprise. She was getting frustrated; there were no workers with connections to Shinigami, from the present _or _past with any motives for collecting Trisha's soul. Mei jumped out of the way, as Emiko stormed past the pinkette bookkeeper, and opened the double doors that lead into the hallway, very loudly. She stormed down the stairs to the ground floor. She turned down a hallway, and ended up in the conference room, where Kameko and Jordan were sitting, discussing something pointless, no doubt. "I want all the employee's quarters searched for anything suspicious, not limited to the missing pages from Trisha Elric's book!" She shouted.

Jordan and Kameko regarded her for a moment, and then both left the room, probably to alert Shii of the dishwater blonde's decision.

Emiko sat down in one of the chairs around the large wooden table, and cradled her head in her hands. She was going to get to the bottom of this, even if it cost her, her job. The Crossroads doesn't make mistakes, and that's what this whole thing was. One. Big. Mistake.

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**AM: Okay… maybe I got a little crazy with Ed and Roy… but I have to admit that it was fun to write! And the link to the picture is: http/ www. deviantart. com /view/ 36168700/ (without spaces, of course)  
TK: …. Feh  
AM: Don't pout, Tori-kun! –Pokes him in the cheek-  
TK: Don't touch me…  
AM: Awww! Tori-kun is mean to meeee:( -sobs-  
TK: Don't cry, you retard… people won't review if you cry.  
AM: Le gasp! They won't! I'll stop crying if you promise to review! REVIEW!  
TK: ­­­­­­­­**­­**feh...  
AM: _REVIEW!_**

**-Ai**

**Minako-baka X3**


	7. Chapter VII

**AM: Hello again, everyone. I'm so sorry for the wait… I got a bit lazy… that's about my only excuse. –sweatdrop- But I promised Tori-kun I'd get this chapter out before my birthday party… at least I did that much  
TK: yeah… right before your party…  
AM: And as a special treat, since my golden birthday's coming up, I'll make this chapter as long as I possibly can XD (Turning 16 on the 16th XD how cool?)  
TK: So, let's also make this author's note as short as possible, and get on with the thank yous and get going, eh?  
AM: Good idea! XD**

**Thank you: ZaKai, Invader –Nehima, SpiritsFlame, Beh (yes, I know it was you, Chelsea-chan), Neo Diji, A Slice above the others, and eagle-chan**

**AM: So, instead of arguing or conversing with Tori-kun, this time, I'll get right to the story without him having to tell me to.  
TK: How very thoughtful of you.  
AM: T.T the point of that was for you to _not_ say anything…  
TK: oh…**

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**Chapter VII: Hearing**

"Emikoooooooo" the petite blond known as Kameko, whined as she stat down on the bed in the quarters they were searching. This whole thing was boring for her, and she just wanted to get back to her post, guiding Cadavre to rooms, or aiding them in the crossing over process. Searching employee quarters for some measly pieces of paper were _not_ what she had in mind, and she was going to make it known… for the twentieth time today.

The one the blonde had been addressing turned from the closet she had been searching to look at the small woman –whom Emiko had doubts was a _woman_ to begin with- "What?" she demanded monotonously, her tone lacking it's usual harshness, which should have signaled to Kameko that she had grown tired of the question she _knew_ the **kid** would ask.

Regardless of what Emiko wanted, Kameko asked the same question she had asked in the last twenty rooms, before seating herself on the bed and watching the other two search. "Why are we doing this?" she all but wailed. (Yes, this girl was without a doubt a child, and although she had probably been in the crossroads for at least 20 extra years, she hadn't matured in the least.)

Emiko sighed in exasperation and explained _yet again_ exactly why they were searching each of the employee's quarters for anything that might somehow indicate that _they_ were behind the death of one Trisha Elric.

As Emiko finished her explanation for the fifth time that day, Kameko asked –again for at least the twentieth time that day, "But why _us_?"

The dishwater blonde growled quietly at the other blonde, and went on to explain _again_ that since the Crossroads had no dedicated investigations department –or something similar, as crimes never happened in the Crossroads- so, the most trustworthy of the employees had to conduct the search.

"But why are we the most trustworthy?" Kameko asked, trying to make it look as if she were curious, not trying to stall the search and look like she was being lazy.

Emiko had only glared at the girl, and ordered her to keep searching, then turned her back to continue searching herself. This only earned her some incoherent whining, and a thump (which was probably the blonde sliding off the bed and onto the floor)

The moment the 'tortoise child' (1) hit the floor, Jordan, -who had been searching diligently the entire time, despite the conversations between the other two- stopped what she was doing, and pulled a stack of white paper from a small space between the wall and an old looking wooden box. Holding the papers up in the air triumphantly, and waving them like a flag, she called out, "Bingo!"

Kameko only produced another whine; "Those pages have no writing on them. It's not what we're looking fooooooor."

Emiko slapped her forehead in aggravation, and glared at the youngest of the three, "Yes it is." She argued, snatching the papers from the brunette's hand, and stalking out of the room quickly. Jordan sighed and followed her shorter friend, dragging an argumentative blonde along behind her.

-

Alphonse watched the three strange women walk down the hall, but all he could do was blink at them. He was afraid to move, for the fear that the short angry woman with the frown fixed permanently on her face would lash out at him if she saw him. Thought the tall brunette woman turned and smiled and waved at him, whilst dragging the other shorter girl along behind her. At a complete loss of how to respond to the gesture, he waved back, a dazed look –as was usual for him these days- playing on his young features. When they had passed, the dishwater blonde boy continued on his way to the library, all the while wondering what the procession he had just witnessed was all about.

**xXx**

Edward sat on his bed in the dorm he and his brother shared when they weren't on missions. His head was positively spinning, and an unfamiliar feeling was present in the pit of his stomach, and he didn't like it. (Or maybe he did, but he didn't want to admit it to anybody, because it was weird.) Why was it he couldn't shake off this almost giddy feeling? What the hell was there to feel giddy about anyways! Unless it was what the colonel had said... NO! That was absolutely not it! And yet, a part of him (the sensitive side, that Edward hated most) kept telling him that that _was_ it, and he should stop being so infuriatingly daft. He frowned at nothing and mentally punched that side of himself, informing it that _it_ was the stupid one for saying something so ludicrous. The voice only scoffed and stopped talking, it's wisdom was, apparently, too valuable to waist on this ignorant fool.

Of course, new Edward was fuming (and still giddy at the same time). How dare his own brain insult him, even if it was the side he hated most! He was about to inform the sensitive side that he was _not_ stupid, _he_ was the one that became a National Alchemist at the age of twelve, and his sensitive side did absolutely nothing to help, however, he was interrupted when Alphonse knocked on the door, creating a sharp knock that pulled the blonde teenager out of his inner dialogue. This also made him realize that he was talking to himself, Oh God! He was going crazy to boot! With this hypothesis, he fell face first into his pillow.

"Brother, are you in there?" he heard his brother's innocent voice ask from the other side of the door.

Alphonse took the muffled response as an affirmative, and let himself into the dorm, noticing his brother was sprawled out on the bed, which worried him _a little_. Something along the lines of "OH MY GOD, HE'S DEAD!" passed through his thoughts, before he remembered that his brother had _just_ spoken… or something similar to that.

"Uh, Brother, are you okay?" he asked, admittedly more than a little alarmed by his older brother's total lack of movement.

The alarm at his brother's _physical_ condition was completely destroyed, when the blonde unexpectedly jumped up and shouted, "I'M NOT BLIND, DAFT, STUPID, OR IGNORENT, DAMMIT!"

Now Alphonse was left wondering about his brother's mental well-being. He assumed it was the stress of all the missions the colonel had sent them on was starting to get to him (or had been getting to him for a while, but hadn't started showing until just now… the straw that broke the camel's back, perhaps?). Maybe what his brother needed to clear the insanity from his head was a good trip to Risembool. (Or maybe Alphonse just wants an excuse to see Winry)

"Brother, are you alright?" he asked, his voice sounding a little more than worried, over his brother's outburst.

Edward sat up and regarded his brother silently for a moment, when he finally responded, all he said was, "Huh?"

If the taller of the two had eyes, he would have rolled them, "I said, are you okay?" he repeated, hoping his brother heard him that time.

"Oh…" Edward smiled, obviously covering up some other emotion, "Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, though it was obvious that there were at least a few reasons he _wasn't_.

Alphonse made a sound similar to a sigh, "Brother, maybe we should take a vacation." He suggested hopefully. He didn't want his brother to go completely crazy, and he was sure nobody else wanted that either. (Unless of course, they were already convinced he was crazy)

Edward stopped smiling and looked at the suit of armor for a moment, considering his answer. He wanted to get out of here desperately. To get away from the missions, to get away from most of the short jokes, to get away from Major Armstrong, and to get away from the colonel. Then again, he also wanted to be near Ro- THE COLONEL! No! No he didn't! Wait… did he? Oh… it was all too confusing, "Sure Al! Let's go now!" he all but shouted, and dragged his brother toward the door.

**xXx**

Emiko glared at the girl standing in front of her. The girl was of a similar build to Kameko, and had short brown hair cropped just below her chin. She wore a variation of the standard gold trimmed white dress all the employees of the crossroads wore. Her armband was a navy blue, indicating that she was in charge of sending shinigami into one of any worlds to retrieve the soul of one who had died. They stood in silence for a moment, the lower ranked brunette's ice blue eyes filling up with tears.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Emiko spoke, "You didn't even bother to check your sources!" She bellowed, her voice echoing throughout the conference hall.

The brunette seemed to shrink under the older woman's intense amethyst glare, "I…I…" she stuttered, unable to say anything to the woman who stared her down.

Jordan, who was sitting in one of the many wooden chairs situated around the table, leaned back in the chair and gestured to the brunette, "Eri told me that she was sure Trisha was supposed to die." she muttered, frowning pointedly at the girl.

Eri shrank yet again, "Y… Yura said…"

Emiko's eyes narrowed, "Yura, was it?" she asked, "I never trusted her… They shouldn't have let her work here in the first place" She then turned her gaze to Kameko and Jordan, who sat at the wooden table, who nodded in agreement.

Kameko took this moment to speak, "Now it will take quite a lot to get her back." She sighed, "Just suppose we did come up with a way to send her back… what sort of mess would we be dealing with?" she asked pointing up, as if gesturing to Heaven.

Jordan groaned, and Emiko growled.

"Just look what you've gotten us into." Jordan said, closing her eyes and frowning.

"M-maybe this is all just a misunderstanding…" Eri said hopefully. All three of the workers turned to her and glared.

"There's no way this could be a misunderstanding." Kameko said, standing up, "Not only did we _find_ the missing pages, but we confirmed that they were from Trisha Elric's book. _And_ she was just starting to improve when you sent that shinigami after her. She was just starting to improve when you sent that shinigami after her. You even ADMITTED to sending the shinigami after her!" The blonde's shrill accented voice caused the brunette to flinch.

Emiko glared at the small woman before her again, "Get. Out." she ordered in a dangerously low tone.

"Ma'am?" Eri asked, the alarm in her quivering voice showing on her face.

"You've screwed everything up…" the dishwater blonde said quietly. She clenched her fists and shouted loud enough that the entire building could hear her voice, "GET OUT!"

Eri bowed hurriedly, and scampered out of the room, running into the golden doors in her hurry to escape Emiko's wrath. Emiko sat down on a chair and buried her face in her hands, "This sucks." she muttered, Jordan and Kameko nodded in agreement. "Bring me the records of Trisha Elric!" she shouted, her voice loud enough it again echoed throughout the conference hall, and carried to the staff room.

A mousy looking blue haired girl rushed into the room, carrying the burgundy colored book, "Here, Ma'am." She said, placing the book in front of Emiko, bowing politely, and rushing out of the door. Emiko said nothing, but sat there for a moment glowering at the gold design on the table, "I. Hate. This." She said through her clenched teeth.

Kameko, who noticed that Emiko had no intention of moving, grabbed the book and flipped through the pages, looking through it and smiling. When she reached the back of the book, she pulled the pages that had been ripped out from the sash around her waist that she had tucked them into. She looked over them, straining her eyes in hopes of seeing what would have been written on the paper. She looked up at Jordan pleadingly, and the brunette nodded and waved her hand over the page. Words appeared faintly on the page, and though all three of them knew they were breaking rules by reading the future, they had to know, for the sake of this case, what _would_ have happened.

Emiko scanned over the page, and growled, reading out loud, "the disease was fatal, said the doctor, because they had never seen a patient live through it, but Trisha was so determined to live, that her body started to make a recovery. She had been feeling a little better, but somehow, she started getting weaker when the shinigami came to collect her. That's typical, though. Shingami can do that to people, even when the dead are around them, they can feel faint…" she stopped talking, looked between the two and yelled, "SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED AT ALL, DAMMIT!" she slammed her fist onto the table, so hard, a few cracks could be heard. Kameko shoved a reminder to fix that later today to the back of her mind.

"That's a serious crime, then." Jordan pointed out, "There will be some problems here. We can't straight out punish Yura, since it was Eri who instructed the shinigami…"

"And we shouldn't just punish Eri, since Yura was the one giving her orders, and the idiot will do anything anyone tells her to." Kameko added.

Emiko sighed; she was seething now, "That means we'll have a hearing. And figure out whom to punish. But I won't let one or the other of them get away without punishment, that much is for sure." She said, squeezing her clenched fists.

oOo

Trisha sat by the fountain in the large courtyard outside the Crossroads, wondering what all the fuss was with Jordan and Kameko. They had been walking on eggshells around her, and she didn't like it. Something strange had to be going on, and she wanted to know what.

"SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED AT ALL, DAMMIT!" she heard a voice shout from inside the building.

_Who wasn't supposed to have died?_ She wondered to herself. Maybe that person was related to her in some way or another, and maybe that's why Jordan and Kameko were being so careful around her. Maybe something had happened to Edward or….

She was broken out of her musings by one of the employees. The woman had very long raven hair, and odd lavender colored eyes, "Miss Elric?" she asked tentatively.

"Trisha's fine," she replied, smiling at the girl. She was quite pretty, really, though she had a stern, worried look on her face.

The girl nodded in silent confirmation, "Emiko-sama, Jordan-sama, and Kameko-sama need to speak with you." She said, "They're in the conference room, follow me" she bowed, and turned toward the building.

The raven-haired girl lead Trisha down the large main hallway to a room with large solid gold double doors, where she stopped, "Emiko-sama is in a very bad mood, I should warn you." She said, before turning her back on her again, and walking back down the hallway the way that they came.

"Hey, wait, aren't you coming?" Trisha called after her.

The girl grinned over her shoulder, "I'm not allowed in that room, good luck though," she said, waving.

Trisha looked at the door, worriedly and after a moment, cautiously pushed open one of the large double doors, noting that it was quite heavy. She entered a large room made of marble, just like the rest of the building, there was a large wooden table stretching the length of the room. At the very head of the table, sat Emiko, and as the raven-haired worker had said, she did _not_ look happy. On Emiko's right and left side sat Kameko and Jordan, both looking at her, with expressions reading a mixture of regret and embarrassment. Emiko looked up, when she heard the door shut behind her with a loud _'thunk'_ and her face brightened barely. She motioned for Trisha to come over to where they were sitting, so she did as was expected; crossing the whole room to do so. "Miss Elric." Emiko started, lacing her fingers together.

Trisha frowned at the formality, "Please call me Trisha." she requested.

Emiko sighed, but nodded, "Trisha" she said, stressing the name, as though she was correcting herself, "We have a problem."

Trisha tilted her head to the side, "What kind of problem?" she asked, curiously

Kameko scratched the back of her head, "Well… um…" she muttered, trying to find a way to word the next sentence.

Jordan decided to rescue the blonde, "One of our staff member has made mistake." She looked at Emiko who only growled. So, had Emiko made the mistake?

"What kind of mistake?" She asked in curiosity, she had no idea they could make mistakes in the department of souls and death, and the like.

"A _big_ mistake" Kameko said, also looking at Emiko now.

Trisha also looked at Emiko, a big mistake? Now she knew you could make a mistake here, that wasn't a very comforting thought, "What kind of _big_ mistake?" she asked, again out of curiosity.

Emiko clenched her teeth and fists, and then said, "You weren't supposed to have died yet."

Trisha looked at the dishwater blonde in shock. How could that be? She had been fatally ill, she had died just like the doctor had predicted, just on the day the doctor had predicted. What did they mean she wasn't supposed to have died?

"What we're trying to say…" Kameko started, sensing the woman's confusion, "Your soul was taken from its body, even though it shouldn't have." Trisha still only gave her a puzzled look. She tried to clarify, "When you were sick, your body was completely determined to make a full recovery, so you had started to overcome the disease, but as you started to make this miraculous recovery, somebody gave a shinigami the orders to guide your soul from your body to the Crossroads. She was mistaken, however, and now…" She made a noise of frustration. "This whole thing is just one big mess!"

Jordan decided to step in, "Maybe I can try to explain." she started, then looked Trisha directly in the eye, "She wasn't _mistaken_ as Kameko said." She explained, "She did it on purpose. She knew you weren't supposed to die, but she told the shinigami to take your soul anyway. And since shinigami always has to listen, it ended up like this.

"But you can do something, right?" Trisha asked in concern. If she shouldn't have died, was there a way to fix this mistake and bring her back to Amestris? To her sons?

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm yeah, I s'pose" Kameko said, making a face.

"First of all, though" Emiko said, "We'll have to solve the problem up here. Giving a shinigami intentional incorrect orders is a serious crime." She said, "This person deliberately messed up our whole system, just for the sake of…. I don't know why yet, but there will be a hearing later today, and you are expected to attend." There was a ringing sound coming from Emiko's sash, and Emiko sighed, "Dismissed" she said, waving a hand at the brunette woman, as she pulled a strange device from the golden sash around her waist, and spoke into it, like one would a telephone.

Trisha bowed politely to the dishwater blonde haired woman, and turned to leave, when Emiko's voice called her back.

"Wait, wait, don't go, the hearing will be now. They're gathering all necessary staff members, and they'll all be in here soon, so just wait." Emiko said, pushing a button on the device, and replacing it in her sash.

Jordan motioned to the seat beside her, and Trisha took it, observing each woman's face.

"This is a load of shit we're in…." Jordan muttered, propping her head up with her hand on her cheek.

Kameko nodded in agreement, then leaned on the table, and looked intently at Trisha, "To fix this mistake will be…. Hell in a hand basket, to be blunt" she said, "There will have to be so much we'll have to go through… or maybe we won't do anything about you… Either way, its all very tiresome" she said letting her head hit the table.

The doors were flung open in the next moment, and everyone directed their attention to the figure standing there. She was a tall shapely woman with long white hair that touched the floor. She wore a long white dress clung to her figure with a gold sash around her waist, and gold trim around the shoulders, at the hem, and around the top of the high neckline. It was sleeveless, and showed off her bare arms, along with the many golden bangles she wore. Her skin was ghostly pale, and greatly contrasted against her bright red lips, that were currently turned downward in a frown. Her eyebrows were knit together, in deep thought or agitation. She placed her hands on her hips, the bangles jingling together as she did so. He looked to the three women who were now nodding to acknowledge her presence. Emiko stood up, and relinquished her seat to the woman with white hair. "Hello, girls." She greeted. Her voice was both beautiful and haunting at the same time.

"Good afternoon, Shii-sama" the three women chorused together.

Now that the woman, whom Trisha figured was Shii, was closer, she noticed that her eyes were a pale blue-white color, however the pupils couldn't be seen, and Trisha found herself wondering if the woman was blind.

Jordan tapped the brunette woman on the shoulder, and whispered in her ear, _"She's not blind, honestly, she can see four times better than the rest of us… it's just the way the rulers of her world were marked."_ She explained.

Trisha nodded in half understanding, and Jordan seemed satisfied.

The brunette woman just noticed that Shii hadn't come in alone, there had been at least seven other people that had come in with her: The raven-haired girl that had escorted her here, along with a girl who looked exactly like her. The both held a tall silver staff with a multi-pointed star on top. Standing next to one of the girls was a woman with long black hair, and eyes to match, whom Trisha recognized as Yura, was being restrained by one of the raven-haired girls, who held onto something behind Yura's back. A petite brunette woman seemed to be in the same situation as Yura, being restrained by the other raven-haired girl.

Next to those girls was a small mousy looking girl with short sky blue hair and eyes to match, wearing large square framed glasses. She was holding a burgundy colored book with golden writing on the spine. Trisha recognized this girl from the day they had retrieved Alphonse from the other side of the Gate. She smiled slightly at Trisha, and nodded subtly in greeting. Beside this girl, was another girl, just as small as the blue haired one. She had short pink hair. She was holding a very large deep blue book, which seemed to be difficult for her to hold. She also smiled at Trisha, and nearly dropped the book, when she bowed politely. Standing right behind Shii was a woman with long golden blonde hair, pulled back into a pony tail on the back of her head, and light green catlike eyes, that seemed both stern, and gentle at the same time. This woman wore a gold armband just like Kameko, Jordan, and Emiko, which meant she was the same rank as the three, or perhaps a little higher. She wondered if the strange silver symbol on the band meant anything.

"Let us begin, then, shall we?" The silver haired woman asked, her voice echoing throughout the hall, even though she had spoken quietly.

Trisha had expected this hearing to be similar to a court hearing, but it wasn't. Everything was rather casual, save for the serious situation they were dealing with. The first part had gone on with the blue-haired girl reading the charges against both women, Yura, and Eri, Trisha supposed that was the brunette that looked like she was about to cry.

She noticed that the pinkette was writing everything that was said in the blue book she had been holding earlier.

Shii directed her attention to Eri, who gasped under the woman's gaze, "Eri, what do you have to say to this?" she asked.

Eri's bottom lip quivered, as she tried to speak, "I have nobody to blame but myself. I was stupid for following the orders of someone that I wasn't under the direct command of. And I should receive full punishment for my actions." When the girl had finished her short speech, she burst into tears. Trisha couldn't help but feel sorry for her, but Jordan had snorted quietly, and she could see Emiko rolling her eyes.

Shii raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, instead, she turned her gaze to Yura, and before she could open her mouth, Yura began speaking, "I take full credit!" she said almost as if she were proud of herself.

"Oh?" Shii asked looking rather surprised by the almost triumphant tone in her voice.

Yura nodded and smiled malevolently, "Right. It was my idea to kill this bitch." She said jerking her head toward Trisha.

Trisha blinked in astonishment at the woman, she had never thought she would hear that kind of thing come out of the woman's mouth.

Yura glared at her, "I took her illness as a good reason for her to die. Nobody would think anything of it if she died earlier than she was supposed to. She was sick after all, and nobody really get suspicious, unless a person just dies for no reason. It was perfect! And if this girl…" here she pointed to the pinkette hurriedly scribbling everything down, "Hadn't pulled out the book, nobody would have found out!"

The blonde standing behind Shii frowned, "So what? You just decided that Miss Elric should die!" she demanded, her words saturated with poison.

The smirk on the dark haired girl's face grew wider, if possible, "Of course not. I've always hated her, for having what I couldn't."

Trisha blinked in astonishment, someone was jealous of her? Why would anyone be jealous of her?

"You." Yura began again, "You were always so wonderful. You won the affections of Hohenheim, after only knowing him for a little while. I'd known him for seven years, and he never loved me, no matter how much I loved him! Why did your life have to end up so perfect? Those stupid little children of yours! You whole life! Everything about it was just so perfect, and I hate you for having what I couldn't, because of that disease! Then, eight years ago, I DIE from it! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LIVE A LIFE OF DISSAPOINTMENT!" She shouted, breaking free of the raven-haired girl's hold, and rushing at Trisha. However, the blonde woman that had been standing behind Shii until that moment stopped her before she could reach the brunette. All she had done was touch the choker Trisha hadn't realized both the convicted women had been wearing, and Yura stood completely still, as though she had been frozen.

Nobody said anything for a while, and the only thing that could be heard was the scratching of the pinkette's pen against the paper of the book, but that soon stopped too.

Shii regarded everyone in the room before closing her eyes and folding her hands, "That will be all for now. I'll decide each woman's punishment, and get back with all of you when I've made my decision.

With that, she left the room, the blonde woman, and the others that had come in with her, following closely behind, leaving the conference hall in absolute silence.

* * *

**(1) Remember from the first chapter? Kameko is Japanese for "Child of the Tortoise", or "Tortoise Child"**

**AM: So, how was that? Was it okay? Did Yura turn out alright? I'm really worried about that… -sigh- Please tell me how I did, because I struggled a lot with this chapter, and I'm still not very confident about it…  
TK: You're not confident about any of your chapters.  
AM: That's true… that's true… Anyway, I'd better get going… it's about 2:30 and I have to wake up early tomorrow… oooh that's bad…. XD oh well, bye!  
TK: -sigh- right, and as a birthday present for Minako-baka, you could review. I think she's appreciate that.  
AM: Tori-kun! You really do care! I'm so touched!  
TK: No, I've just decided that maybe if I'm nice to you on your birthday (or near it anyway) you'll take these handcuffs off.  
AM: T.T No way. You can forget that.  
TK: Oh, well, in that case, nobody review! She's a bitch and doesn't deserve them!  
AM: TOOOOOORIIIIIIII-KUUUUUUN! –pulls out a magnum and shoots Tori to Hell-**

**REVIEW!**

**-Ai**

**Minako-baka**


	8. Chapter VIII

**AM: I'm so sorry for the disgustingly long wait… (I wonder if anyone even knows this story exists anymore) My only excuse is… Minako-baka has discovered this fabulous thing called _"video games"_ actually… Final Fantasy VII to be exact… and then it all went downhill from there… -gringrin- And of course, I had to get my hands on Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII and… yeah. So. I'm sorry, really I am.  
TK: Well, that's not an excuse at all. You shouldn't neglect things the way you do.  
AM: I know, I know, I'm a bad person… Wait a minute… where did you come from, didn't I kill you last chapter?!  
TK: Hell didn't want me… I guess I'm just too devilishly handsome, that Satan was jealous. So I was sent back to torture you.  
AM: Oo …….. O…..kay then!  
TK: Whatever… I think, instead of torturing people with excruciatingly long authors notes, you should get right to the story, nobody cares about you anyway, they just wanna know what happens.  
AM: Right. Nice to know I'm cared for so much.**

**Disclaimer: …duh**

**Thank you: cuylerjade, A Slice above the others, Invader-Nehima, ZaKai, Me And My God Complex, Neo Diji, Greedy Ed, golden-kitsunebi, and swinth **

**AM: And now that Tori's bound and gagged and locked in my closet, I'll get on with the story.**

* * *

**Chapter VIII: "What if We Could Send You Back?"  
**

Alphonse was completely at a loss as his brother dragged him out of headquarters down the road, to the train station. He idly wondered if his brother was supposed to alert somebody of his spur-of-the-moment vacation, or not. Oh well, he hoped the colonel would understand, and made a mental note to call the colonel once they made it to Risembool.

Edward, on the other hand, hadn't even considered these things, as he was too busy arguing with his infuriating sensitive side (which he decided to rename his "stupid emotional side" because it seemed to be the reason he couldn't convince himself that Roy liking him was completely horrifying). The longer he tried to deny liking Ro- THE COLONEL even as a friend, and even a little bit, the 'stupid emotional side' kept insisting that he was _in love_ with the man. This stupid emotional side, however, was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! There was _NO_ way that Edward would _EVER_ think of _ANY_ other person like that, especially not an evil conniving colonel, who loved to call him _SHORT _(which he most certainly wasn't) on a daily basis. No. There was no possible way that he could feel that way. NOT A CHANCE!

"_Oho, is that so?"_ that frustrating little voice chided, just trying to get him to shout out loud and embarrass himself.

'_Yes.'_ Edward replied, mentally, making sure not to yell this time. Having an outburst like that in front of just his brother was embarrassing enough, just imagine how horrible it would be in front of a crowd on the…. train? When did they get on the train?

"_You should tell me. You were the one who bought the tickets, remember?"_ the voice mocked, finding this whole thing very amusing, causing Edward to wonder if maybe he was suffering from schizophrenia.

"Probably… you're pretty mentally unstable anyway, so insanity is just another thing to add to your long list of problems."

'_I've had about enough of you.' _Edward mentally growled. This 'stupid emotional side' didn't seem very emotional or sensitive to him, unless being a sadistic bastard was emotional and sensitive.

"_Remind you of someone you know?"_ The voice asked, a nonexistent smirk audible in its tone.

'_NO!' _Edward mentally yelled, but then after thinking on it for a moment, a name came to mind.

"_That's right, Roy…" _The voice praised, sounding rather pleased with itself (if that's possible)

If that damned voice wanted him to find some kind of hidden message in there, it could just forget it. He didn't care now. He didn't want to listen to that stupid voice, it was too infuriating, and frustrating.

So instead, he decided to ponder how Alphonse knew so much even though he hadn't read half of the books he could quote.

**xXx**

"I just realized something" Jordan muttered into the book she was reading.

"What?" Emiko snapped. She was still brooding from the dramatics of the hearing earlier today.

Jordan looked up from her book and looked directly at the dishwater blonde standing near a wall with her arms crossed. Her amethyst eyes glared at the wine colored carpet as if she could melt it with her gaze. Jordan shook her head; Emiko was probably the only one who could.

Trisha also looked up to Emiko, then back to Jordan, curious of what the brunette had realized.

Jordan forced an almost apoligetic smile in Trisha's direction, before going on, "That girl…. Yura… she said she'd known Hohenheim for seven years… she was like what? Seventeen when she died, right? So I mean… how in the world did she even _know_ Hohenheim I mean… really… he's like… thirty… Well he was when she was seventeen… so like he'd have been twenty something while she was ten… it doesn't really make sense." she was obviously thinking about how to word the question, but didn't do a very good job in getting her point across.

Trisha's eyes widened a bit, she hadn't even considered that, she was too shocked at the fact that she shouldn't even _be_ here to notice the other things the malicious girl had said. However, now that Jordan had vocalized it, she was curious as well. Had Hohenheim even _been_ in Risembool that long?

Emiko rolled her eyes, "That's because she _didn't_ know him. Not on a personal level. She knew he existed, and she thought him attractive. And she most _certainly_ wasn't in love with him. Honestly… humans can be so dramatic sometimes."

Trisha cocked her head to the side questioningly. She had been under the impression that Emiko had been human at one time, but she was talking as though she had always been immortal.

Jordan let out an exasperated sigh, "Honestly, Emiko's can be so _stupid_ sometimes. Hello You were human once too. Just like _everyone_ here. And we all _still_ make mistakes. I mean really." she stopped talking and frowned, then grabbed the book she had set down and threw it at the brooding blonde's head "and you didn't answer my question."

Trisha couldn't help but giggle as the book when gliding through the air, and hit Emiko in the forehead. The blonde had obviously not been expecting it, and jumped as it hit her. When the book fell to the floor, she picked it up, and threw it back, missing Jordan and hitting the table. "That's no way to treat a book!" Trisha scolded, as the book landed on the table and fell open. "Honestly, you've been alive longer than me, and you're so childish." She shut the book, and placed it gingerly on the table. She felt somewhat sorry for the book, being abused by a couple of childish girls; then immediately she felt silly for feeling pity for an inanimate object, and turned to Emiko, "And I want to know too." she said, folding her hands in her lap.

Emiko locked her gaze on Trisha and raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Know what?" she asked blankly.

Jordan scoffed, "She wants to know the answer to my question, idiot." she supplied, looking irritated, and Trisha felt she had the right to be. Emiko wasn't the one who was dead even though she should have been living. Of course, when those thoughts entered her head she scolded herself for thinking that way, it wasn't Emiko's fault, maybe she felt responsible.

"Yura knew Hohenheim the way you knew that one guy." Emiko answered simply, not bothering to elaborate.

"Okay…" Trisha said quietly, "This is just getting ridiculous. Jordan and I want to know how Yura could be in love with someone if she was ten when she met them… I think I at least deserve to know." and she did. This had to do with her husband after all, and Emiko was just being infuriating. For a moment Trisha wondered if maybe she was trying to be, but dismissed the thought as quickly as it came.

Emiko sighed and sat down on the couch Jordan was lounging on, making it a point to pick up the brunette's feet and drop them roughly on the floor first, before she sat. "Jordan was the daughter of someone high up in some military force… a general or something." she said silencing the brunette she was sitting next to when she opened her mouth. "So she knew of a lot of military guys and there was this one… What was his name?" here, Jordan opened her mouth to supply a name, but Emiko put a hand over the brunette's mouth. "We don't care what you have to say. The name wasn't important. The point is. Yura's father or somebody knew Hohenheim, and he would visit often or something, and he didn't even know Yura existed, but Yura was sure she was in love with him. Whatever. She's a freak. End of story." she said quickly, taking her hand off of Jordan's face, and leaving the room.

Jordan made face between a sneer and a triumphant smirk after Emiko's retreating back, and when she turned to say something to Trisha, the dishwater blonde shrieked and ran back into the room, "YOU LICKED ME!" she screeched with horror and disgust, "That. Is. DISGUSTING!"

Jordan simply shrugged, and Trisha's nose wrinkled in revulsion.

Emiko let out a noise between a growl and a scream and slammed the door behind her, as Jordan started laughing. Trisha really didn't realize what was so funny, the brunette had licked someone's hand, and Lord only knows where it had been. Then she had cackled insanely at Emiko's reaction. They were just too unusual for her to understand.

The taller brunette recovered from her evil giggle fit and shrugged, "Sorry about that" she apologized, but Trisha didn't think she was sorry at all, and if she was, she didn't look or sound like it.

Trisha shook her head anyway, "it doesn't matter" she said, closing her eyes and offering a weak smile. However, when she opened her eyes, a look of minute terror crossed her face. Jordan was grinning, almost evilly. The sort of grin Edward used to get when she knew he was planning something he knew he shouldn't be, but thought it was a brilliant plan anyway. Oh yes, she knew that look well, and she didn't like it, especially not on Jordan's face. Jordan was supposed to be like an authority figure, wasn't she? To make it ten times worse, Jordan was looking at _her_ with that expression, which made it all the more terrifying. "What is it?" she asked, not trying to mask the nervousness and utter horror in her voice.

The short haired brunette gave an almost evil chuckle, "What would you say… if I told you we could send you back?" she asked, conspiratorially.

Trisha could only blink. "Back where?" she asked, completely befuddled.

"Back to Amestris of course!" Jordan exclaimed, grinning madly.

Trisha decided she definitely didn't like the evil glint in the other woman's eyes, and couldn't help but inch away from the brunette a bit. "How do you propose to do that?" she asked hesitantly.

The insane looking woman stared blankly for a moment, before grinning, "I have no idea!" she exclaimed, shrugging.

Trisha nodded, "Right." she stood up and was about to go check on Alphonse in the library, but Jordan's voice stopped her.

"I'll figure out a way, though. I promise." she heard the brunette say her voice utterly serious and determined at the same time, "Alphonse too." and when Trisha turned around to give the woman a smile, there was nobody. Jordan was gone, and Trisha knew she hadn't "faded" or "disappeared" as she had seen it before. When Jordan left a room, she was there one second, and gone the next, it was inexplicable. Some things, though, especially in the Crossroads, were probably much better left unexplained.

With that thought in mind, she left the room**  
**

* * *

**AM: Well, originally I had planned on making this chapter longer, since it's been a while since you've heard from me. But it just seemed like this was a fabulous place to stop… it's also about 1:00am and I've got a power point presentation I have to do for tomorrow. Sorry, guys, maybe I'll find time tomorrow to get up _another_ chapter. Wow wouldn't that be fantabulous?****TK: Oh yes…. ever so much –dripping with sarcasm-****  
AM: Well. Nobody asked you, did they, Tori-kun? Because nobody cares.****  
TK: I'm sure _everyone_ likes me more than you, after all, _I'm_ actually attractive.****  
AM: Right… whatever. ….Why are you here?****  
TK: Whatever are you talking about?****  
AM: You were bound and gagged and locked in my closet.****  
TK: -grins- and that's all for this chapter, see you people later. And how about clicking the purple button and telling Minako-baka to feed her muse?****  
AM: Hey, wait a minute-****  
TK: -hits Minako in the back of the head with a metal bat- Ehe. Nobody saw anything Review, and maybe I'll dump some water on her… And perhaps get her some medical attention as well.**

**-Ai**

**Minako-baka**


	9. Chapter IX

**AM: -is sopping wet with a huge bump on the back of her head- -nervous laugh- Well… To a few of you who reviewed… I said I'd have this chapter out on Friday… but Tori didn't wake me up until Saturday, and I had a minor concussion so yeah… (No not really, of course).  
TK: Well, it's not my fault you wouldn't wake up on your own.  
AM: Okay… so life sucks, and I can't think of anything else to put in my author's note, so I'll spare you all my rambling, and get on with the story!  
TK: For once…  
AM: Oh Yeah! Invader-Nehima had asked me about what Roy was doing during all of this, and I realized that I forgot to put Roy in the last chapter… XP I'm a moron… That would be why the chapter seemed shorter than it was…. Eh…. sorry guys…  
TK: You really are a moron…  
AM: Oh, look, the author's note got long! XD Well, life sucks for you, Tori!  
TK: Whatever…**

**Disclaimer: I liek totally don't care….**

**Thanks: anmbcuconnfan, Invader-Nehima, A Slice above the others, and Chelsea-chan (who hasn't reviewed yet, but says she will)  
**

**AM: Oh! I've lost reviewers! –sob-  
TK: Told you life sucked….  
AM: Oh shut up!  
**

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**Chapter IX: Paperwork, Whiteout, and Friendly Visits**  


Meanwhile in Central HQ, the Colonel was wondering if it was actually possible to make a bigger idiot of himself… probably not. Unless he did something drastic like running out in the middle of a crowded street in his underwear and singing that annoying laundry soap jingle very loudly… (1) Of course, he would _never_ do that, because that would be ridiculous. Though, he found himself wondering if he came up with that idea from some sort of experience with a drunken comrade… or something like that.

He hoped that maybe working on the paperwork Riza had dropped off a few minutes ago would help him take his mind off of his mortification. So, he picked up a pen and scanned the paper, humming a tune as he read.

In about the middle of the paper he began to wonder exactly what tune it was that he was humming. He put down the pen, a frown gracing his features, as he slowly hummed the song to himself and after a few measures (however the colonel knew nothing of music and naturally had no idea what a measure was) he realized that the song he was humming was… that disgustingly irritating laundry soap jingle! Unfortunately, thinking about the soap jingle made him think about running out in the middle of the street in nothing more than his boxers and singing it loudly, which made him remember why he even _thought_ about that in the first place, which made him even more embarrassed with himself than he was before… if that was even possible.

"_Maybe it's because I love you, Ed!"_

Roy's forehead hit the desk… hard. _Love?_ Was that really what he'd said? Fond of… certainly… Infatuated with… most likely… but _love?_ Where had that even _come_ from? (2) But, it didn't matter where it had come from, what mattered was that he screwed up, and he needed to set things straight. The only problem was… how the hell would he go about doing that?

Actually, that didn't matter currently either, because just as Roy began to ponder how he would explain himself to Edward, Riza walked in, raised a disapproving eyebrow at the pile of still unsigned paperwork and placed another stack on the desk.

Now, instead of wondering how he could set things straight (or the more favorable not so straight), he was wondering _where_ all of this paperwork was coming from! Maybe the higher ups were dumping their paper work on him… He quickly filed that idea in the back of his mind along with all of his other "when I'm the fuhrer" schemes.

Unfortunately, the Colonel soon discovered that now was not the time to let his mind wander, especially when he heard the familiar sound of a certain somebody's favorite gun being taken out of its holster, and being cocked. "Colonel sir, I noticed that you've been getting behind in your paperwork, and I fear you're in need of the proper motivation." Hawkeye threatened moving to stand behind her commanding officer. Roy soon felt the cold metal of the gun's muzzle being pressed to the back of his head.

He would have questioned Hawkeye's loyalty to her commanding officer, but the last time he did, Riza said something about shooting "Roy, and not the Colonel" whatever that meant… So, instead of complaining, he reluctantly picked up the pen, reached for the first sheet from the pile (the one he'd started on earlier but was interrupted by a stupid evil jingle), finished scanning it, and scribbled his signature.

Why was it that his life sucked so badly today?

**xXx**

"Are you completely insane?!" Emiko practically shrieked, causing both Trisha and Kameko to jump.

"Probably…" Jordan replied, removing her fingers from her ears. She had plugged them earlier, and Trisha wondered if she was actually _expecting_ Emiko to act like that. "I'm probably also deaf now too…" she remarked, placing her fists on her hips.

Earlier, after Jordan had left, Trisha had gone off to find Alphonse, who had fallen asleep in the library again. She often worried about her youngest son, he was often sleeping, and when he wasn't he was reading or eating… it was like he didn't socialize with anyone… almost like he wasn't really there… Come to think of it, she hadn't gotten a proper explanation of Alphonse's conditions from any of the three workers she was familiar with. She'd have to ask them about that later…

After she'd taken Alphonse to their shared room, Jordan had appeared out of nowhere with Kameko in tow. She'd explained that they were going to convince Emiko to help them send Trisha back to Amestris, which was what they –or rather Jordan was doing now.

"I don't care about you or you hearing… I do wish you were a mute though…." The dishwater blonde muttered, still miffed about the hand-licking incident earlier.

"Emiko, think about it for a moment." Kameko stepped in, "You're- no, everyone's upset about Trisha's death being a mistake…" Here she motioned to Trisha, "So why don't we fix it? You know like putting a bunch of white out over the whole incident." she suggested clasping her hands together.

Trisha gave the blonde a blank look, as did the other two in the room, "White out" she questioned furrowing her eyebrows slightly, "What's that?"

Kameko looked surprised, "White out… you know, the white liquid you paint over mistakes you make in pen or marker…" the small blonde attempted to explain.

Trisha shook her head, "I don't have any idea what you're talking about…" she said, smiling a bemusedly.

"You're not alone…" Emiko muttered, rolling her eyes.

Kameko let out a sound of frustration, "You guys!" she whined, "What do you mean? You've never heard of white out?"

"Please excuse us for living in different worlds without your alleged white out." Jordan said sarcastically, picking up a book from the nearby table.

"You're not excused!" Kameko countered sticking her tongue out at Jordan, "Now you don't know what I mean! You're so dumb."

Jordan held the book aloft and aimed it at the petit blonde's head, but before she could throw it, Trisha snatched the book from her hand, and lightly hit her over the head with it, "Stop abusing books." she scolded, gently setting the book back on the table.

Jordan grinned sheepishly, and shrugged, "Sorry." she apologized and leaned against the table.

"Hellooo?" Kameko said loudly, "Doesn't anyone care about my idea?" she asked.

"No." Jordan replied, shutting her eyes, "Because we don't _understand_ your idea." she complained.

Trisha simply shrugged, "Why don't you explain your idea instead of comparing it to something we've never heard of?" Trisha suggested, eager to hear the idea.

"Right…" Emiko agreed, sitting down in one of the chairs situated around the table Jordan was leaning against. Trisha and Kameko followed suit. Kameko clasped her hands together in front of herself on the table, and Trisha wondered if it was something she did when she was excited about something.

Jordan opened one eye and glanced lazily at Kameko, who made a face at the tall brunette. She merely smirked and sat down in the chair next to Kameko and looked at her expectantly.

When the blonde began to explain, Trisha couldn't help but get even more excited. She was going home! She could see Edward again! And her house! They could go back to being the happy family they were before her illness. And maybe…. maybe Hohenheim would come home… maybe Edward would realize that he didn't abandon him, that he had something he needed to do, and he'd promised her he'd come back.

Maybe she'd live to see both of her sons get married to nice girls. She began to wonder which one would marry Winry. She couldn't wait now. Now that she was so close to going home!

**xXx**

Edward and Alphonse walked up the long path to the top of the hill that the Rockbells lived on, both lost in their own thoughts.

Edward was dwelling on what Roy had said to him earlier today, and still trying to decide his thoughts about it. He was also still arguing with his stupid side, trying to convince it that it was stupid.

Alphonse, however, was thinking about different things. Usually, on a trip to the Rockbells he would be thinking about Winry, and how excited he was to get to see her after not seeing her for so long. He'd think about how guilty he felt for leaving her out of the loop, but at the same time, worried about what she'd say if she found out what exactly it was that they were doing. However, this time, he was thinking about something completely different. He was stuck on the fact that he had memories of things he knew never happened. He could remember Hughes showing him photographs from a photo album. They weren't just photos of Elysia either, there were pictures of he and Roy when they were younger, pictures of a younger Gracia… like there were pictures from his whole life. These memories, though, weren't really memories at all really, but rather dream. He wondered how it was possible to remember dreams though, because he didn't dream, nor did he sleep.

This thought led him to wonder how he knew all of the texts and stories he'd never read before, and why he felt like he was so close to Mom even though she was gone. The more he thought about all of these things, the more he began to get a strange feeling in the back of his thoughts… like something here was going to change… drastically.

"EDWARD!!!" a female voice screamed angrily, as a wrench flew toward them and hit his older brother in the head. Edward fell to the ground clutching his head, but they both noticed how the wrench returned to the girl who'd thrown it… almost like a boomerang.

"That's not even normal!" Edward yelled, standing up, but still holding his head tenderly, "And that really hurt!"

Winry ignored him, instead, running up to Alphonse and hugging him the best she could without injuring herself, "Hi Al!" she said beaming, "If you guys were going to drop by, you could have at least called." she remarked, then turned to Edward with an evil glare, "Unless that is… you've ruined your automail again… then I'll just have to kill you." she threatened, holding the wrench up menacingly.

"No actually, it's in perfect condition." Edward replied, completely forgetting the concussion he probably had. He actually sounded quite proud of himself, rolling up the sleeve of his coat and taking off his right glove to show off his neatly polished almost new looking automail.

Winry just stared at it for a moment, looking absolutely ecstatic, and for a moment, both brothers thought she was going to cry. "You mean… you actually took care of it?" she asked, clasping her hands together and grinning, "And you actually just came for a visit?"

Edward smiled sheepishly and scratched the base of his braid, "Yeah, actually…" he muttered.

Winry squealed with delight, and hugged both of the brothers, still mindful of the sharp points on Alphonse's armor, "Thank you." She said quietly, "You have no idea just how much this means to me…**  
**

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**AM: I really like Winry… and I always feel sorry for her when Alphonse and Edward just show up for automail repairs or whatever. So… I decided to be nice to her. She really just wants to spend time with her childhood friends like she used to, right? (Oh yeah, and AlWin in this... eventually...) And just so I don't get any questions about it: Just because I've watched the anime doesn't mean that I like it… quite the contrary actually… So then, Roy _wasn't_ the one who killed Winry's parents (I've always hated that… I wish they hadn't done that…) –grin- right, onto my little comments.**

**(1) The laundry soap thing… it came from the origin of the term "Soap Opera" because when they were still listened to on the radio, soap companies often sponsored them… Of course that was in like the 1920's in the States, wasn't it? So I'm in the future a bit… Oh well…**

**(2) Tori-kun interjects that it came from me… even though that's kinda obvious….**

**TK: Yeah yeah… whatever…  
AM: And now there's your nice long chapter… well not really long… average length for me. And don't worry, you will get to hear Kameko explain her plan… but that's in the next chapter…. XD and I'm in too much pain to fight with Tori, so I'm leaving.**

**-Ai**

**Minako-baka**


	10. Chapter X

**Asahi Minako: 'Ello, 'ello! It's me again, with another update! (finally) After finishing a fabulous FFVII Fanfiction, and realizing that "hey, it's Friday the 13th! Perfect day for an update!" I come bearing…. well an update!   
**

**Oh, and I've decided something. Because I started this story on 666, I'll be ending it on 777. –grin- because, you know… 666 is the sign of the devil and whatnot, and 777 is the sign of heaven… Is that right? I don't know. That's what a friend of mine told me, but he could be bsing me… Whatever. Not a lot to say about this chapter… Oh! Except I've been struggling with it** **_forever_**** Okay not forever… but since my last chapter. You'd better be thankful it's out… or… not… y'know. –grin grin- So then, on with the show, right? **

**Thank you:**** "your best friend" –cough- Chels –cough-, Invader-Nehima, AzalynAngel, A Slice above the others, greedy ed, and Graphite Wings **

**AM: God, you know, for a while there I forgot how great it felt to be writing a story and getting nice reviews. It also inspires me to _finally_ get all of those scanlated chapters of the FMA manga that I've been neglecting since school started up again… (That's like 9 months, whoa.) So, you reviewers should all feel greatly appreciated. Because you totally got me back into a fandom that was on a slow decline since I discovered video games. (God I'm depressing). So then, I'm stalling. I know it. I'm going to star t the chapter now. Love you all, by the way! XD **

**Oh. Before I forget… there's a lot of Winry in this chapter, and a lot of interaction between Edward and Winry, and a return of the alleged white out (but that's not really relevant). So then, if you don't like Winry (which I don't understand why anyone wouldn't) you'll have to get over it if you're going to continue reading, because I happen to like Winry, and she's terribly important to this chapter anyway… and the whole story, really. So, again, I love you guys, here's your chapter. **

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**Chapter X: Talking With Winry and The "White Out" Project**

The Elric brothers had been staying at the Rockbell's home for two days. Two agonizingly long days in Winry's opinion. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the boys' company, quite the contrary really, she loved having them around. It was just that they both seemed unnervingly gloomy recently. Usually, by the second day the brothers would stay with them, she and Edward would have found at least three things to argue intensely over within the span of time.

The two didn't argue with each other because they didn't get along, really, they simply enjoyed arguing with each other. It was a way of bonding, really, but I digress.

At least Alphonse was making an effort to _pretend_ to act like himself, even though he was never the best at acting, and therefore making it painstakingly obvious that something was wrong. Edward on the other hand, wasn't even _pretending_ that everything was fine like he usually would, and that was what unnerved Winry the most. Spending two days with an overly cheerful Alphonse and an unreasonably gloomy Edward would make anyone want to tear out their hair- or in the case of one blonde automail mechanic, scream loudly, and throw her wrench at anything that moved.

Winry, however, was able to keep these desires inside by working intently on the order she needed to fill by Saturday; of course, it was terribly difficult to concentrate on anything with that gloomy Edward sitting in her work room, just being miserable and staring out the window. Occasionally, though, she could feel his eyes burning into her back, and that made her nervous. On one such occasion, she was about to turn around and demand to know what exactly was wrong with the golden-haired alchemist, but when she finally turned around, he was gone. This baffled Winry even more, because usually he would at least announce his exit, but this time he just left, and it caused Winry to worry about him even more.

Once Edward had left, though, she was able to work on the piece of machinery further, and even though her thoughts kept straying back to her golden-eyed friend and how depressed he looked, she was able to actually complete most of the artificial limb before midnight.

Around midnight, though, the blonde mechanic decided she was too stressed out about the unusual behavior of her house guests to concentrate anymore, and decided a break was in order. Quietly, so she wouldn't wake anyone that happened to be asleep, she snuck downstairs to the kitchen and prepared herself some coffee, maybe that would help her take her mind off of things. When she sat down at the kitchen table, the steaming cup in her hands, she inhaled the aroma in an attempt to calm her frazzled nerves.

The brothers were causing her more stress than usual, and that upset her, but it also worried her, because they really were her closest friends. She knew there were always things that were bothering them, but it was just that those things, whatever they happened to be, seemed to be bothering them more than usual, and they still wouldn't tell her about them even though she really wished they'd just talk about it, maybe it'd make them feel better.

Just as she lifted the seaming mug to her lips, she heard the familiar uneven footfalls of none other than Edward Elric come down the stairs. When she turned her head in his direction as he entered the kitchen he looked terribly surprised to see her there. She smiled cheerily at her blonde-haired friend, even though he looked terrible. He had obviously not been sleeping, and of course she'd noticed at dinnertime that he barely ate. Right now, his hair was disheveled and wet, hanging around his face and brushing his back, as though he'd just gotten out of the shower.

"Good morning." She greeted quietly, and winced at the weariness in her own voice.

The blonde alchemist only nodded in reply, and Winry frowned, "Sit." she commanded, and pointed to the chair next to herself, then thought better of it, "On second thought," she contradicted, "Go into the living room, and _then_ sit."

Edward looked at her confusedly, but did as she demanded, which only made Winry a little more concerned. Since when did Edward do what he was told the _first_ time he was told? She shrugged it off and decided she'd get to the bottom of it now, before pouring another cup of coffee for Edward and grabbing her own. She made her way into the living room and sat down on the couch next to the dazed looking young man. She handed him the cup, which he accepted, and took a tentative sip. She decided now was the best time to confront him… gently.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, not terribly surprised by his response.

"Nothing." he replied shrugging and taking another sip of his coffee, "Why would you think there was something wrong?"

_Because you're making it painfully obvious,_ she answered in her mind. "Because, you've been gloomy since you came." she explained, and then added bluntly, "You look like crap too. And I know these things anyway, Edward," she continued, tapping her temple and smiling. "I've known you long enough."

Edward just shook his head, and Winry started getting a little annoyed, "Edward, talking to someone will make you feel better." she coaxed, sipping her own coffee slowly.

The golden-haired alchemist shook his head again, "I… can't." He replied, and then smirked humorlessly, "I almost feel stupid actually." he confessed, bringing his human hand up to comb through his wet hair.

"I won't judge you." Winry replied, grabbing a hairbrush from the coffee table nearby and handing it to him, "You obviously need someone to talk to, and I'm here."

Edward took the hairbrush and sighed, "It's stupid," he answered vaguely, and in response Winry grunted.

"You said that already." she replied, and set her coffee on the coffee table, named accordingly, "And I can't stand seeing you so gloomy, especially because you usually pretend like everything's all fine and dandy. So you're going to tell me what's wrong, or I'm going to torture you until you do." she threatened, grabbing some of her friend's golden hair and tugging just hard enough to earn a yelp from the elder of the two.

"No." he replied, wincing at the pain he felt in his scalp from Winry's 'torture', "I said _I_ felt stupid the first time." he countered, "And I do _not_ pretend that everything's fine. It really is."

"No it's not." the mechanic answered, tugging on his hair a little harder, then letting go and putting her hands in her lap. She looked down at them and confessed quietly, "I'm worried about you." Though it did make her feel a little better that Edward was at least _talking_ like he used to. After Winry had spoken, the two sat in an almost awkward pregnant silence, neither of them looking at the other.

"I'm just… confused." Edward confessed, finally breaking it.

Winry looked over at him and rolled her eyes, "Isn't everyone?" she asked.

"I don't know what to think." Edward continued ignoring Winry's comment, "I just can't believe he actually _said_ that." he mused.

"Whom?" Winry asked, "Alphonse? Are the two of you fighting or something?" She prodded, concerned that maybe they had gotten into a fight and that's why neither of them were speaking to each other.

"No. Not Alphonse" Edward muttered, running the hairbrush through his hair absently, "Roy."

Winry blinked, "Roy? Since when do you call him Roy?" She asked almost sounding amused. Maybe the two had grown closer since he'd last visited?

"I don't know." Edward confessed, "One day he was just the bastard Colonel, and then all of a sudden, my minds thinking 'Roy' instead… Is there something wrong with me?"

Winry was a little taken aback by the question, how could anything be wrong with him for wanting to call his superior officer by his first name? They'd known each other long enough, hadn't they? "Why would there be?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I don't know." Edward repeated. He seemed to not know a lot recently.

"Do you like him?" She asked, a knowing smile playing on her lips.

"Well, I suppose…" the alchemist answered honestly, "I mean, he's an okay guy, aside from the short jokes… He's really trying to help us."

"No, no!" Winry replied, chuckling, "No." she repeated, "I mean do you _like_ him… as in are you _attracted_ to him?" She asked, fully enjoying the reaction she received from her golden-haired friend.

Edward's face turned red enough to rival his trademark coat, and he sputtered indignantly, "Wh-wh-what makes you say that?!" he demanded. The mechanic only giggled when Edward continued, "I am _not_ gay!"

This caused Winry to erupt into full-blown laughter, "What are you talking about?" she asked, "Have you ever even _looked_ at a woman?"

Edward looked away again, "No." he replied, crossing his arms, "But that doesn't mean anything."

"Oh it doesn't, does it?" she asked again, shifting on the couch so she was sitting on her knees, "Well then…" she said, crawling closer to the alchemist on the couch, "Have you ever looked at a man? And I don't mean just _glanced_ I mean really _looked_." She asked, almost purring.

Edward's face turned even redder if that was possible, and he sputtered again, but didn't say anything.

"Well?" Winry prompted while grinning in a cat caught the canary sort of way, "Have you?"

Edward looked like he wasn't going to say anything at first, but then Winry heard a faint, "yes." float to her ears. Her grin widened, if that was possible, and she decided to milk this for all it was worth.

"What was that?" She almost sang, "I couldn't hear you."

"Yes, okay?!" Edward shouted glaring at her from his spot on the couch, and Winry noticed that his eyes looked a little glassy. For a moment she thought he was going to cry, and that made her feel bad.

"Hey." she said quietly, moving over to wrap her arms around her stressed friend's shoulders, "It's okay." she comforted, leaning her head on his metal shoulder, and squeezing him tightly, "I'm sorry… I was just playing around. It doesn't matter anyway, you know. Love is love. Don't cry."

Edward sighed in a huffy way, and brought his human hand up to wipe at his eyes, "I wasn't crying." he responded, even though his cracking voice was unconvincing.

"You're stressed." Winry tried to console, "And I didn't realize you were so… sensitive. I'm sorry." she apologized, and moved away, "There's really nothing wrong with that, though, you know." then she added, smiling, "And Roy's sexy anyway."

Edward shot her a look somewhere in between shock and embarrassment, "I don't like him." he replied through clenched teeth.

"Sure. Whatever." Winry agreed sarcastically, waving her hand at him, "So what was it he said that made you so…" She gestured at him while she looked for the word she wanted, "Like this." she settled for, shrugging.

Edward's blush returned full force, and he looked away, "He said… that he liked me… a lot."

Winry giggled, "Oho? Is that all?" She asked, and then even though she knew it was pointless, continued, "Well then. Do you like him?"

"Didn't I already tell you the answer to that?" he asked irritatedly.

"Yeah." Winry replied, grinning again, "And I didn't believe you." She picked up the hairbrush again, and motioned for Edward to turn around so she could brush his hair. It was beginning to dry, and if she didn't do anything about it, it would dry in tangles. "So tell me… What about him _do_ you like?" She asked, hoping that maybe she could lull him into some sort of trance by brushing his hair. It always seemed to relax him anyway.

"Well… His smile. And his hair… how it looks like he didn't spend a lot of time on it, but at the same time, it looks like he spends _forever_ standing in front of a mirror." He answered, closing his eyes slightly. His lack of sleep and the calming feeling of the brush gliding through his hair were making him a little less alert.

"Hmm." Winry muttered in acknowledgement, then bent down to ask in his ear, "What about his eyes?"

Edward sighed and Winry had to bite back a laugh. When Edward was tired he acted so much like a woman. _What an uke_. She thought snickering inwardly.

"His eyes are absolutely gorgeous." Edward answered, "From far away they just look black, but if you actually _look_ at them, they're actually a really dark blue, with flecks of brown sprinkled in there too. God. I could just get lost in those eyes… They're so… intense, but you can tell there's pain in there he's trying to mask… probably from the Ishvar rebellion, right?"

Winry snickered quietly and began to braid his hair, "And what exactly _do_ you feel for him?" she asked, hoping for a real answer this time.

"I think… I'm in love with him." he confessed, closing his eyes contentedly.

Winry stopped and blinked, "Really?" she asked, picking up the braid again, and shaking her head to clear her initial surprise.

"I don't know… But I do know that I really, really like him." he replied, quietly.

Winry just smiled, "Glad we could talk that one out then." She commented, grabbing the rubber band from around the alchemist's wrist, and using it to tie off the end of the braid. She clapped him on his human shoulder and grinned, "All done!"

Edward just muttered something unintelligible, and curled up on the couch. Winry sighed, and took the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch and draped it over Edward instead. "Good night, you big idiot." she said kindly, and headed back up to her work room to finish that order.

**xXx **

Once Trisha had left for the evening to watch over Alphonse, and maybe talk to him a little more, the three workers were able to discuss Kameko's plan in more detail.

"So then…" Jordan began, pointing a finger at the shortest of the three, "You're saying… that we just… _erase_ all of the records of Trisha's death, right?"

"Precisely." Kameko confirmed, folding her hands on her lap in front of herself again, "I figure that by now most of the people directly connected with Trisha are used to somewhat… strange things happening, and anyone who's not really used to it would be dead by now anyway, right?"

Emiko let out a noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh, "I'm not really understanding…" She muttered, "We're just going to… bring her back? Break into the town hall and erase her death records?"

"Um… Yes…" Kameko confirmed again, sounding just a little unsure of her idea now that Emiko was analyzing it.

"That won't work." Emiko declared frankly.

"What do you mean?!" Kameko demanded, crossing her arms indignantly, "Of course it will!"

"Actually, I see Emiko's point." Jordan agreed, nodding slightly, "Trisha's been dead for… Oh I don't know five years? If she were to just come back, wouldn't that be just a little _too_ strange?" she inquired.

Kameko said nothing since she wasn't about to admit that the elder two were correct, even though they were.

"What then, Jordan, do you propose we do?" Emiko asked skeptically, "Since you and Kameko seem to be the two most intent on 'fixing' this… mistake."

"How about we bring her back… but change her name?" Jordan suggested.

"You mean like the Witness Protection Program?" Kameko asked, excitedly, earning blank stares from both of the other women at the table, "Oh come on! You haven't heard of that either?!" she asked irritatedly.

"Um… no." Emiko muttered, shaking her head tiredly, "stop making comparisons to things we've never heard of."

"How am _I_ supposed to know if you've heard of things or not?" Kameko demanded, standing up and placing her hands on her hips.

"Let's not argue now." Jordan suggested, putting her hand on Kameko's shoulder to force her to sit down, "What do you think of my idea, Emiko?"

Emiko sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I suppose… if you really must do this, that Jordan's idea is the best way to go. Though I suggest that you go back to Earth with her for a while… she'll have to get used to living again and it's a big change. Plus her son will probably want his body back… You should help her with that as well." she suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Jordan asked incredulously, "I don't know alchemy! Where I'm from there's no such thing! You're the one who used to live there, Emiko, you should go with her."

Emiko rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Forty years ago, maybe." She replied, "But a lot of things change in forty years. A _lot_ of things."

Kameko stood again and clapped her hands together excitedly, "It's settled then!" she decided, "Emiko and Jordan, you're both going to accompany Trisha and Alphonse back to Ames-whatever, and I'll stay here and do my job!" She grinned, "I say we dub this plan… The 'White Out' Project!" She suggested, and then bounded out of the room.

Jordan and Emiko exchanged skeptical looks, and sighed simultaneously when the door closed behind their petite blonde coworker. "Is that really what's gonna happen?" the brunette asked tentatively.

Emiko rubbed at her temples and nodded, "It looks that way." she agreed and stood. "We'll tell Trisha about it first thing in the morning." the short dishwater blonde moved toward the door and looked over her shoulder, "Good night, Jordan." she bid to her taller coworker before she left.

"Night." Jordan replied, smiling crookedly. Without another second, Jordan was gone without a trace, in that curious way she always vanished.

It was settled, then, they'd have to come up with a new name for Trisha and a plan for exactly how to do what they were planning on doing. After all, what they were planning was obviously forbidden, and if they were caught, they could get in quite a bit of trouble, so the last question each woman had to ask themselves was, 'Is it worth it?**  
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**AM: I'd like to apologize for the uber crappiness of that chapter. Please forgive me, you guys… I'll probably go through and revise this whole story once I've finished it anyway. Yes, I know Edward seemed kind of OOC… I'm sorry, but keep in mind that he's exhausted and stressed… And of course, how would you react if you best friend knew you were gay before you did? …. I'm sorry again (I apologize a lot). Thanks for bearing with me, and I'll see you next time. (Reviews would be greatly appreciated, by the way) **

** -Ai  
Minako-baka **


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